Mass Effect: The Great War
by Mister Smallville
Summary: The Citadel Council and the Turian Hierarchy has been at war for a good half of a century. Eager to break the stalemate, The Hierarchy seeks out a new ally in a rising Systems Alliance, bringing the war back to full speed. The Alliance now goes through it's trial by fire, as it emerges from obscurity into the galactic stage. (AU no Krogan Rebellions/First Contact Wars)
1. The Tides

_**HNS Spirit of Duty, Suen, 2945 PSC (Palaven Standard Calendar)**_

"Hostile dreadnought is firing!" a flanging Turian voice shouted out. True to his words, a flash on the far side of the battlefield appeared, and in an instant, a Turian frigate not far from the Spirit of Duty was utterly pulverized

"Helmsman! Get us out of its gun sight, NOW!" another Turian commanded. The helmsman complied and brought the ship away from the dreadnought's sight, and behind the carcass of an ancient ship "Status report!"

"Shields are at 67 percent, Proxy Lasers are recharging. Main gun is still overheated." A Turian said, reading through his screen.

The Turian captain may have seemed calm at the moment, but inside, his mind was racing everywhere. The fleet he and his ship was assigned to was decimated. One of the Turian Dreadnoughts, Righteous Fury was crippled, with its main gun disabled, and out of the 87 ships they started with, only 26 remained.

"Bring us to the side, we need to avoid further confrontation. Arterius is calling for a regroup" the captain ordered

The helmsman uttered his agreement and drove the ship away from the thick of the battle. As the Cruiser began its flight, a group of enemy frigates began pursuit of his ship.

"Spirits damned Krogan!"

The captain called for evasive maneuvers, and immediately could feel the ship violently turn to the right, avoiding several shots from the frigate pack that was in pursuit.

"Sir, announcement from Admiral Arterius, patching it through" the communications officer said

" _This is Admiral Arterius making a fleet wide announcement"_ A voice came through the ship's intercom _"All ships are to make a tactical withdrawal from the battlefield. All ships are to regroup at these coordinates, and then we'll head to the Mass Relay together."_ At that command, the Turian captain ordered the helmsman to lose the pursuers, then regroup with the rest of the fleet

Weaving through the ancient debris field, the Spirit of Duty began to gain distance from the frigate pack.

' _One of the perks of having faster ships'_ the captain thought to himself.

As the cruiser finally got away from its pursuers, the captain ordered for the helmsman to head towards the coordinates where they would regroup with the fleet. It took a few minutes for them to reach it.

"This is Captain Sparatus of the HNS Spirit of Duty, reporting in." he said through the communicator.

" _Glad you could reach us in time Sparatus."_ Admiral Arterius said _"That's all surviving forces accounted for, begin FTL jump to the relay. We'll take it out of the cluster, do several FTL jumps to confuse any possible pursuers, then we will head back to Palaven."_ There was a short pause, lasting several seconds, the Admiral then spoke again _"Don't lose hope now. We may have lost this battle, but the war is far from over"_

-000-

 _ **Cipritine**_ _ **,Palaven, Trebia System, Several days later**_

Primarch Fedorian was not a very happy Turian at the moment, the Hierarchy just lost a lot of good soldiers, some of which he had served with. Sighing, Fedorian stood up and walked over to the window. He was afraid to admit it, but the Hierarchy, and by extent the Turians, were losing the war. They weren't as advanced as the Asari, as covert as the Salarians, and neither did they regenerate as fast as the Krogan. The only real advantage they had, was the disciplined Turian spirit, which helped them stay calm, and bring about superior strategies which can, and have, turned the tides of battle.

' _It's still not enough'_ He thought to himself. Despite everything that the Hierarchy is doing, they're merely delaying the Council.

Returning to his desk, Fedorian looked over several operations that required his approval. While he had dismissed most of them, as he could not allocate enough resources without hindering the war effort, he had saved some that had caught his attention. One of the stealth patrols had discovered that a contingent from the Batarian fleet was being mobilized, out of Torfan, towards the Exodus Cluster.

' _But there's nothing there, we've already went through the system'_ Fedorian thought to himself _'unless…'_

Immediately, Fedorian brought up reports from the older scout reports, looking up where the relay in the cluster leads. He found out that there had been energy readings, consistent with nuclear energy from one of the neighboring systems.

' _The only ones who use nuclear energy at that scale are the Krogan, and that's only when they're blowing stuff up. According to the report, the energy is consistent with a nuclear reactor. A large one at that'_

Fedorian read the reports further. The scouts were ordered to get out of the system and regroup above Taetrus, with the rest of the 5th Fleet. Apparently first contact with the Council, and the war that it brought along caused all deep space scouting to be called off.

' _A new race is inhabiting that system, unfortunate that we made contact with the council first. If the Batarians sent a fleet towards their general direction, and not us, that should mean that this new race is big enough a threat to the Batarians, that they had to pull resources from hitting us to take care of them.'_ Fedorian reasoned. _'If we can get this new race to support us, we could get some additional support. But considering this is a young race, it's unlikely this would change anything.'_

He opened his computer and authorized the 23rd scout flotilla to be dispatched to get to the system before the Batarian contingent. Hopefully this new species would prove to be friendly

' _Maybe this is that break we've been waiting for'_

-000-

 _ **SSV Black Typhoon, Over Eden Prime, 2192AD**_

Eden Prime was a quite a large colony for its kind, only being colonized twenty six years ago, it has already grown to have over half a billion citizens living in it. Captain Steven Hackett looked over the planet from the observation window on the ship's bridge. The Black Typhoon and her battlegroup was being stationed in the Utopia system after Alliance intelligence discovered that a sizeable group of Batarian ships is making their way towards Alliance space. Unwilling to risk the colony, especially after the Batarians had overrun Shanxi a year ago. First contact with the Batarians had realized the fears that was held by many humans, hostile aliens, and right at their doorsteps. Because of that fateful day six years ago, humanity is now at war in a stellar scale. Funny how it took the threat of slavery and the destruction of all they held dear to finally push humanity to unify themselves.

Looking away from the window and walked over to the tactical map. At the moment, there was only 19 ships protecting the colony, while the 9th fleet would come and reinforce them soon. A small garrison for sure. But with the Batarians running lightning raids on the border colonies, 29 may as well have been a blessing.

"Sir! Energy spike coming from the Relay, somethings coming through!" the ship's sensor officer, Pressley, reported

"Is it the 9th fleet?"

"No sir, the 9th fleet isn't scheduled for arrival until the next two days"

Understanding what this really meant, he called for a communication line to the rest of the ships in the system. When the communications officer confirmed that he was connected, he began to speak

"To all ships, this Captain Hackett, the Relay is becoming active. We're not exactly sure what's coming out of it, but if it tries to kill us, we'll be damn sure to return the favor" Hackett looked to the tactical map, there was still a dozen or so seconds before the contacts came out of the Relay. "I want all ships to prime weapons and position yourselves to be aiming directly at the Relay. Be ready to shoot at anything that moves, but do not fire unless I say so"

As the countdown reached zero, fourty seven ships exited the Relay. Just as Hackett was give the order to fire, Pressley shouted out

"Sir, sensors read that they aren't Batarian!"

Hackett's eyes widened "Are they alien?"

"Uh, yes sir. They don't match any known human designs"

"Another alien race out for our blood, or are they here to play nice? Send out first contact package! Those politicians back home should be glad to know that this thing's finally being used"

A few minutes passed after the package was sent. The aliens were holding in formation, not moving an inch after it was evident that Hackett and the rest of his ships wouldn't hesitate to fire. The Alliance was also holding their ground, the Gunnery Chief anxious, with her finger close to the trigger. Each Alliance ship was targeting a different ship, making sure that they could dish out as much damage to most of the enemy ships.

"Sir, incoming transmission from one of the alien ships. It's a data package, and a video"

A flanging voice was then heard over the intercom, speaking broken English.

" _Is Lieutenant Commander Quentius Trevanian. Turian Hierarchy, Batarians come. Here to help"_

 _-_ 000-

 **A/N**

 **Thank you for reading my fanfiction! I'm glad you decided to stop by and give this story a chance. So, there are some things to expect from this story going further. First: Updates will be irregular, my schedule is a mess and i'm still trying to work out proper schedules for everything. Second: this is the first fanfiction that i'm actually uploading. i did one on Fallout a while back but i couldn't finish it due to my laptop breaking, so bear with me if my writing style isn't very well, i'll try to improve. Third: some things may be changed from the actual ME canon to fit the story. For example, while Palaven in canon is directly connected to the Citadel via Mass Relay, in here, Palaven and the rest of the cluster it's in is located where the Argos Rho cluster (the place with Pinnacle Station) is located in canon. The Protheans and the Reapers will appear, but there will be more on that later. Anyways, thanks for reading, please put your thoughts and suggestions into a review and hopefully i can upload the next chapter pretty soon.**


	2. Contact

_**HNS Heart of Courage, En Route to Utopia System, 2945 PSC**_

Lieutenant Commander Quentius Trevanian, was given command of the 23rd expeditionary force. If the operation had happened a month earlier, he would have been serving as XO (Executive Officer) on the Heart of Courage. Fate had a different idea however. Only two weeks ago, a large Batarian force made its way to the colony Gallop. The Batarians had already overrun the orbital defenses, and had begun landing troops. Quentius, at the time under the command of Captain Kitus Ovanian, was sent to retake the colony. While the Turian navy did indeed defeat the Batarian force in the system, a missile from an enemy cruiser had slammed into the side of the Heart of Courage's bridge, thankfully it was a dud and did not detonate. Most of the crew inside the bridge was ejected out into the void however. It seems that the only reason that Quentius was alive is because of pure luck.

' _Luck won't save me if I mess this up'_

"We'll be exiting Relay transit in a few minutes" the navigation officer said

"Excellent. Communications, I want you working with the sensor department to make sure that we can actually talk with them"

A few minutes later, the Heart of Courage and the rest of the 23rd expeditionary force dropped out of Relay transit

"Sensors, what do you see?" Quentius said

"There are 7 planets in the system, two of which have breathable atmosphere. We're also detecting several Mass Effect signatures in the system, 29 to be exact. Hang on, we're receiving something" The sensory officer paused for a few seconds "It seems to be a first contact package. I'm going to send this to communications to try and have it translated"

"Good, we need to inform them of our intentions. Make sure that we're shooting at the same guys and not each other" Quentius said "Meanwhile, I want all ships on defensive positions, just in case things do go bad"

Nodding in affirmative, the helmsman coordinated with the other ships and moved to defensive positions near the Relay, with the Heart of Courage at the front of the formation.

Several minutes go by as the crew in communications translated the package as fast as possible. It helped that these aliens included their language in it.

"Sir, we have a basic translator suite ready for use" the communications officer said.

"Excellent work. Open a line to the enemy ship"

The communications officer nodded and prepared a line for Quentius to use

"Line open, you can speak now"

Quentius readied himself. Whatever it is he says to these aliens, it could affect relations in the long run. He took a deep breath, and spoke out

"I am Lieutenant Commander Quentius Trevanian, serving the Turian Hierarchy. A hostile race called the Batarians are coming here as we speak. We are here to help." Quentius said, nodding at the communications officer, who proceeded to close the line "I hope that the translator works. Send them our first contact package and a copy of the translator suite. Let's hope they know how to use it"

-000-

 _ **SSV Black Typhoon, Over Eden Prime, 2192 AD**_

"They managed to get a translator running that fast, I'm impressed" Pressley said "They probably have some really nice computers"

Hackett agreed, looking over the tactical display, he watched as the package was translated from the alien's language. It had helped a lot that the aliens sent a copy of the translator

"Sir, we have translated a part of the data. Sending it to your tactical display now"

Hackett opened the files and read through. From the rough translation, he could figure out that these aliens were called Turians, an avian-like species with metallic plates covering their bodies. They were bipedal, like humans, and had two hands. The cultural part of the package detailed that the Turians were a militaristic race. Their entire society revolved around service to the Hierarchy. The package also contained a piece about the larger galaxy. Apparently this part was the easiest to translate

' _They didn't make this part, according to communications, the code base was slightly different. Likely it was made by someone else. But who? The Batarian's computer capabilities weren't as advanced. More aliens out there then? It's possible that these Turians just took the other alien's first contact package and included them in theirs'_

Reading further, it turns out that Hackett's suspicions were right. There was a larger community out there. A conglomeration of races, calling themselves the Citadel Council, based on a large space station. From the data about this Citadel Council, the Batarians were a part of this organization.

' _They must be where the Batarians are getting their resources'_

From what little Hackett had read about the Batarian territory, they we're abundant in minerals like iron and lead, but not in the likes of element zero.

' _Directly or not, this Council is funding the Batarian's aggressions towards us.'_

Hackett marked that part of the package as important, so that he could come back to it later. Now he needed to address the Turians

"How's the translator?" Hackett asked to his communications officer, Rob Chambers

"The ones that they sent us was pretty crude" Chambers said "We managed to improve the translation accuracy by 47 percent. Lesser chance of accidentally insulting their mothers that way"

Chuckles could be heard from around the bridge. Chambers always did manage to ease the tension

"Good work, send them a copy of the improved translator and open a line to the Turians"

After a moment, Chambers nodded to Hackett

"Greetings Turians, I am Captain Steven Hackett, of the Systems Alliance. We thank you for not shooting at us immediately. However, must question the nature of your… arrival."

It wasn't long before a reply was sent

" _Apologies for urgency, know Batarians at war with you. We at war with Batarians as well. Hierarchy proposes mutual partnership"_

Hackett thought over what the Turian had said again

' _They're looking for allies.'_ Hackett thought to himself _'If they're at war with the Batarians, then it wouldn't be too far of a stretch to consider them at war with this Council too'_

Hackett looked over his options. Refusing the Turians would give the Batarians the edge, which would eventually lead to Eden Prime being lost. If he accepted however, the Turians may ask them to return the favor, probably to become their allies in their war.

' _Either way, we still have to face the Batarians. Might as well go with the one that has a higher chance of succeeding'_

Hackett called for a live call to be opened to the Turians, who accepted the invitation

"I can't exactly make that kind of decision. But if you do help us with the immediate threat, it would gain favor with the ones who can"

" _Understand. Will help on defense, this is your system. Your orders"_

-000-

 _ **HSC Shadow of Bahak, En Route to Utopia system, 2412 CC (Citadel Calander)**_

Real Admiral Narahash Dov'tok of the Hegemony Navy had been given the honor of destroying the repugnant human colony of Eden Prime. Under his command are 117 ships. Enough to beat down whatever puny defenses the Humans had on Eden Prime. Ever since the Hegemony had taken over Shanxi, raiding Human colonies had been even easier compared to the start of the war. With the Human forces spread far too thin to properly stage a counter attack, the Hegemony had ample time to fortify their positions on the planet. By the time the Humans had mustered a force enough to retake Shanxi, they were ready.

The Human counterattack was to be applauded. They fought ferociously for their colony. 133 ships flew in to retake the colony. 133 ships never came back. The Humans hadn't counted on the Hegemony turning captured ships from the Shanxi port and turning them into impromptu warships, piloted by slaves and hostages. The Hegemony only lost one of their actual warships, using the slave ships as shields. The Humans that were attacking hesitated when they found this out, and that was their mistake. After that crushing defeat, the Humans had focused on shoring up their defenses. No doubt that it came across as a devastating defeat.

Now the pitiful Humans are going to suffer an even more embarrassing defeat. With the fighting force, Dov'tok was going to start the chain of events that was supposed to bring the Humans to their knees.

"Sir, we are exiting Relay transit" a Batarian said

"Good, we will show these Humans who is the superior race! I want ground forces deployed as soon as possible. Take as many of them alive as possible"

"Yes admiral"

-000-

 **A/N**

 **31 followers already? That's way more than I thought I would have gotten! Thanks a lot guys. I couldn't exactly fit in an actual action scene for this chapter, I actually wanted to include the fight between the Batarians and the Humans/Turians in this chapter, but I still need to figure out the Batarian's fighting capabilities, since they aren't detailed in standard canon, and also something the Humans would have that could give them an edge towards the Citadel. It wouldn't be anything OP. Yet.**

 **Anyways, this part was already done and i thought 'What the hell, it ties up most of the things mentioned, might as well as throw it in**

 **Thanks for reading as always, put your thoughts and suggestions into your review if you want. And have a good day.**


	3. Eden Prime

_**HNS Heart of Courage Utopia System, 2945 PSC**_

"Doesn't it concern you that the positions they gave us is between them and the Batarians?" the helmsman asked "They could easily just realign their guns and blast us instead of them"

"The price for their trust, flight lieutenant. If we show them that we trust them enough that we let them point their guns in our general direction, it should show them that we're reasonable people" Quentius answered

True, when the Batarians exit relay transit, the first thing they'll detect are the Turian ships, he's putting his men at risk. But if this pays off, he could seal the deal for the future alliance.

And then, as if the galaxy itself was listening in on the conversation, an energy spike was detected from the Relay

"Several ships dropping out of Relay transit sir" the sensory officer said "117 ships detected. IFF signals confirm that they're Batarian"

"This is it men" Quentius made a gesture to the communications officer to open a line to the rest of the flotilla. The officer then nodded to him, signaling the line was open. Quentius began giving orders "Frigates packs 4 and 2, commence strafing run on enemy ships. Cruisers _Spirit's Wrath_ and _Halo of Trebia_ , coordinate with the attacking frigate packs and start battering their shields. The rest of you, stay in defensive positions. Pick your targets carefully and fire when ready. Spirits guide you"

As both sides began trading fire, their respective bridges began being flooded by reports from their respective allies

"Shields are holding at 37 percent!" an officer said "Proxy Lasers are cooling down"

hearing this, Quentius ordered for his ship to pull back while the Proxy Lasers recharge. The Proxy Laser is the Hierarchy's attempt at evening the playing field when it comes to point defense systems. While the Council GARDIAN Laser recharged faster and used less power, it didn't block as many missiles and torpedoes as the Proxy. The Proxy used a a quite a bit more power than the GARDIAN, but what it lacks in speed, it makes up with stronger lasers, better accuracy, and range. Ever since the Proxy Laser was first introduced to the Hierarchy Navy, less and less ships were lost to Salarian torpedoes. In some cases, it even took out shots from a Krogan ship, which was impressive even to the Council.

The enemy missiles and torpedoes didn't even get close. The Hegemony didn't invest as much to its long range weapons as they did to their melee-range cannons. One thing that almost all Turian officers were thought in naval academy, aside from "Don't attack a Krogan ship head on" and "Asari ships have multiple shield generators" is "Don't get too close to a Batarian Cruiser" as their broadside turrets could shred a Frigate in a matter of minutes.

Which is why Quentius opted for hit-and-run tactics at the moment. Hierarchy frigates can out run most other ships, which played well into their current strategy

"Proxy Lasers are cooled, Shields refreshed to 92 percent" the officer said

"Take us back into the fight" Quentius said

Looking over at the holographic display in front of him, he observed that the Batarians we're pushing slowly towards the planet, Eden Prime, the Humans called it. While their strafing runs were certainly dealing some damage, they weren't doing enough to really deter the enemy fleet. He saw that the Batarian frigates at the front of the enemy group were nearing the effective range of the Human ships. He put in an order for some of the cruisers to focus their fire on those ships. He hoped that by the time the Batarian ships at the fore front reached the Human's effective range, their shields would be depleted.

He looked out the window just in time to see one of the Batarian frigates enter the Human ship's effective range. Just as he had hoped, the enemy ships had their shields depleted and fell victim to the Human ship's cannons. A shot from a Human ship, cruiser tonnage by Hierarchy standards, hit a Batarian frigate and disabled it. Another shot from the Human cruiser destroyed it outright.

Quentius was impressed with the cannons that the Humans were using. They hit a lot harder than theirs, and was making short work of unshielded ships.

"Sir, Several Batarian ships are going through a power surge. They're charging their FTL drives!" The sensory officer said

"Get out of their movement lanes!" Quentius ordered. An FTL crash would obliterate both his ship, and potentially everything close enough.

 _'Risky move Batarians. You've breached our defensive perimeter, but you leave your flanks unguarded'_

A group of Batarian ships began glowing, and in a blink of an eye disappeared, reapearing far behind the defensive line and close to the planet.

Growling, Quentius began giving new orders

"I want frigate pack 2 and 6 to pursue those ships. Prepare the Blackwatch soldiers on the _Trinitus_ for planetary operations. Get me a line with the Human command ship while you're at it"

After a few seconds, the communications officer had opened a line to the Human ship.

 _"What is needed Lieutenant Commander Quentius?"_ Hackett said as soon as his face appeared on the display

"I'll get to the point, Captain. I want to send a group of soldiers to reinforce your ground forces" Quentius said

Hackett did a motion with his had, similar to the Asari motion of telling someone to wait

While it was true that he wanted to help the Humans however way he could, the Blackwatch squad was also going to observe and assess the Human's combat capabilities.

After a few moments, Hackett replied

 _"We will provide coordinates for soldiers"_ Hackett said _"Do not deviate, or will be shot"_

After that, Hackett closed the line

-000-

 ** _New Singapore, Eden Prime, 2192 AD_**

While a lot of the civilians had been evacuated to bunkers around the city, a large number of them are still unsecured. The Eden Prime garrison is doing everything they can to speed up, but after the news that several ships had FTL jumped past the defensive perimeter. The Batarian's arrival had moved up from one and a half hour, to fifteen minutes.

Staff Sergeant Zaeed Massani and the men under his command was ordered to help evacuations in the southern residential areas

"Move your asses! Slavers won't give you a rat's ass about fair chance!" he shouted

He was currently backed up by several heavy armored vehicles. But when the evacuation transports leave, the armored vehicles would leave too.

Just as he was helping stuff a family into another transport, his radio buzzed

 _"Sergeant Massani, status report"_ the officer on the other side said

"We're just loading up the last of the people, sir. Pretty sure we missed a few dozen, but the helos and trucks are already stuffed. they'll have to either get out on their own, or wait out the fight"

 _"I don't like leaving people behind, sergeant"_ the officer said

"I know sir, but we don't have much choice as it is" Zaeed said, he knew the Major hated leaving innocents to die. The Major saw his family die during the first Batarian attack during first contact six years ago

 _"If you find any civilians that are still stranded, it's your DUTY to protect them. If i find out that you left any of them to die, you can say goodbye to that promotion you've been looking forward to"_ the Major stopped for a while to let the statement sink in for a bit. _"I trust that you won't disappoint me, Sergeant"_

"No sir" Zaeed simply answered

 _"Good. Get back to work, Major Harper, out"_

 _-_ 000-

 **A/N**

 **That's pretty much it for chapter 3. I suck at naval/space battles, or any action scene in general. Sorry if the fighting kinda sucked. Apart from that this chapter is mostly to set up the different tactics and abilities each race will be using. This chapter also features the introduction of Zaeed and Harper, who will play several roles in future chapters. Harper himself will be important in future arcs.**

 **In response to several suggestions about the supposed 'edge' the Turians and the Humans will have, I thank you for taking the time to write. User An Sionnach Rua gave an intersting suggestion about the Thannix weapons, but they're not gonna be coming out any time soon. What really caught my attention is user Gyre's suggestion about the static discharge inside the Mass Effect drive cores. After some research, i've come up with a way on how it may be implemented, but whether it will come up any time soon depends on how soon i can go through this story arc.**

 **I also urge you to report any and all gramatical errors that I made**

 **Anyways, thanks for reading as always. Put your thoughts and suggestions into a review if you feel like it, and have a good day as i wrestle with school and writers block at the same time.**


	4. As Above

**A/N**

 **After rereading some of the previous chapters, i feel like the scale of the fight is a bit too small. So i've taken the liberty to go back and increase the ship numbers. Alliance ships are increased from 19 to 29, Hierarchy ships from 29 to 47, and Hegemony ships from 57 ships to 117**

 _ **HSC Pillar's Glory, Eden Prime, 2412 CC**_

Commander Dorik Har'varash wasn't sure if the admiral was a risk taking intellect, or an outright retard. Sending in a dozen ships on FTL to land a force immediately wasn't just splitting their effective strength, but also cuts off potential paths of retreat for the ground troops that are to be deployed if either one of the groups get destroyed. Having his ship sent as one of them doesn't give any points to favor the admiral either.

"First wave of ground forces deployed, sir. Turian frigate pack will reach their effective weapons range in twelve minutes" the sensory officer said

Dorik smirked at that. Turians we're nothing if not overly cautious. While him and his small group of ships had jumped as close as they dared to the planet, the Turians did not take the same risk, and jumped a couple hundred or so kilometers away from his group, giving them time to deploy their forces.

"Excellent, there is ample time to prepare our defenses. Have _Harsa's Vengeance_ and _Righteous Conquest_ set up defense positions and deploy their fighter screen. We must make sure our ground forces can do their work" Dorik ordered

The original plan of subjugating the colony had gone out the window the moment the Turians were detected in system. Instead, they would do a smash-and-grab. Hit the colony as hard as they could, take whatever they could, and burn what they couldn't.

' _The cursed Turians will pay for intervening here'_

As the Turian frigate pack entered weapons range, the _Pillar's Glory_ and its sister ships began firing away, several shots hitting their targets, but none of them broke through the enemy shields. The ships fired again, once again landing shots on the Turian frigates. One of the enemy frigates had its shields dangerously low, noticing this, Dorik ordered the ships to focus on the weak frigate. The frigate was managed to evade a few shots, but ultimately was hit in its 'wing' and engine. Dorik ordered another volley, and the _Pillar's Glory_ shook again as it fired its main gun, dealing the killing blow to the helpless frigate.

Despite killing one of their frigates, the Turian frigate pack had heavily damaged a cruiser and disabled two frigates. Dorik smirked as the frigates pulled back, probably to avoid further casualties.

"Damage report!" Dorik demanded

" _Harsa's_ _Vengeance_ has taken heavy damage, _Righteous Conquest_ has lost its main engines and the FTL drive core is damaged. Frigates _Jagged Dagger_ and _Hawk Boar_ is disabled. Other frigates are reporting downed shields or other superficial damages"

The Turians had done some considerable damage, but the landing procedures of the first wave was so far unchallenged, the Turians couldn't get close enough to hit any of the landing crafts.

' _It looks like Dov'tok's crazy plan is paying off'_ Dorik thought. Over the few operations that he'd been put under Dov'tok, Dorik would notice that he would take some incredible risks, sometimes they would pay off, more often than not they failed miserably however. The slimy bastard probably was an Admiral because someone higher ranking than him owed him something. This was not the time for him to think of such things however, he had ground operations to oversee.

"Launch second wave as soon as possible, the first wave should be touching down by now. Prepare third wave to launch as soon as I give the order" Dorik said. He had an opening to launch more troops while the Turians licked their wounds. He didn't doubt that Dov'tok could deal a serious blow to the Humans and the Turians, but he could see that there was an even chance that the battle could go both ways. As a precaution, he will take control of the raid operation himself, and as soon as they have taken as many things to be profitable, they will leave the system. With, or without Dov'tok.

-000-

 _ **Valhalla Airbase, Eden Prime, 2192 AD**_

As soon as the Batarian landing crafts were detected coming in atmosphere, Ilya Sokolov, Zoya Flight, and the rest of Crusader Wing was being launched to intercept as many of them as possible. Taxiing on the runway, he readied himself and his plane for the coming battle. Unlike the new Mi-199 Gunships, the fighters were still not equipped with Mass Effect cores, meaning to say that VTOL capabilities were still limited and that they still had to take off on a regular runway. The plane he was using, the F-82 Python, was a top of the line aircraft and performed well both in atmosphere and in space. It had been serving the Alliance faithfully for the past 19 years, but the arrival of the Batarians meant that it was high time for them to upgrade. Sokolov had heard that a Mass Effect driven fighter craft was in the works, but until then, they had to make do with the Arcade.

When the rest of his flight set themselves up in position, they reported their status. After all of Zoya flight reported in, wing leader Cunningham began a rundown of their mission

" _Crusader wing, we are assigned to Hamilton Hill"_ A holographic display opened on his HUD, showing a large open area. A perfect place for a sizeable force to land. _"The 87_ _th_ _Armor division is fortifying the area with SAMs and AA cannons. Until they are fully operational we are to hold off the enemy force as long as possible. Estimated enemy strength is at 300 small crafts and rising."_ Red markers began to appear on the display, red squares indicating transports, and red triangles indicating fighters. The red markers kept appearing with no signs of stopping. _"Drone squadrons are being deployed as we speak, and will be assisting us and other fighter wings."_ Green markers appeared on his display now, indicating the drone support. _"I won't lie people, a lot of us aren't touching the ground again alive. But if we are going down, we sure as hell are taking the four eyed fuckers with us!"_

Sounds of approval and a few cheers could be heard over the communications channel

" _Well then people, let's get this show on the road"_

-000-

 _ **Over Hamilton Field, Eden Prime, Half an hour later**_

Sokolov was at awe at the sheer amount of landing craft and fighters that the Batarians were sending. He had fought the Batarians before, but never at this scale.

' _This is it'_ he thought to himself

The wing leader Cunningham gave the order to attack, and each flight group broke away from formation and engaged in close quarters combat.

Zoya flight targeted whichever transport they could, weaving in and out of the danger as if they were a single mind.

" _Eyes on, three heavy transports, two escorts. Easy pickings boss."_ One of the pilots said. A ping sounded off on his headset and the transports became highlighted on Sokolov's HUD

The flight leader agreed. _"Good eye Zoya 4. All Zoya flight elements group up form up on my right, we're blowing them out of the sky"_

As they formed up on Zoya leader, the flight began stalking the transports. Sokolov targeted the Batarian crafts with his missiles. His HUD had notified that he and the other planes in Zoya flight had locked on, and as it did, they fired together. The volley decimated the enemy formation.

" _Yeah! At this rate we'd wipe these four eyed fuckers out of the sky in not time"_

Sokolov smirked, the Batarians may have had the edge in ship-to-ship combat, but they sorely lacked in firepower when it came to small crafts like fighters or gunships.

" _Can it Rodney, save the whooping for later."_ The flight leader said

Looking around, Sokolov saw a larger group of transports being escorted.

"How about that, six transports, five escorts. Bigger fish to eat" Sokolov said as he highlighted them on his HUD

" _Taking out the big fish will help the ground forces further"_ Zoya lead said _"We're hitting them. Zoya 5 and 2, engage their fighters while the rest of us slam their transports out of the sky"_

Acknowledging, Sokolov and Zoya 5, Rodney, broke formation and engaged in combat against the Batarian fighters.

Zooming close towards the fighters, Sokolov and Rodney began firing at them. As expected, the Batarian fighters turned to engage the two human fighters. One of the fighters stayed to escort the transports, but one fighter was not a problem. As Sokolov and Rodney drew away the Batarian fighters, the rest of Zoya flight launched their missiles at the rest of the craft on the formations. The Batarian fighters realized their mistake and tried to come back around to attack the rest of Zoya flight, but are too late to stop the transports being shot down. With the fighters in disarray, Sokolov and Rodney locked on with their missiles and destroyed them, wiping out yet another transport group

This went on for the next half an hour, the Batarians suffered major casualties, only a few dozen transports managed to make a proper landing.

Wing leader Cunningham's voice then buzzed over the radio

" _All elements of Crusader wing, this is Cunningham. The 87_ _th_ _Armor division has fully deployed in the area, and all anti-air weapons are successfully set up. We are to pull out of the area and return to Valhalla to restock and refuel. Beyond that, Crusader wing will be deployed as close air support in the defenses of other regions."_

Sokolov knew that it had been a job well done. Batarian presence in Hamilton hill is estimated to be less than 500. Easy enough for the 87th division to clean up. With that, he turned his plane around back to Valhalla. This battle may have been won, but the invasion wasn't over yet

-000-

 **A/N again**

 **And that wraps it up for chapter 4, it took me a while to write this one down, as once again, i am not the best at action scenes.**

 **Also, a few quick questions. Should i include months in addition to the years? Should i skip out from using the different date systems and stick to the basic AD calendar? And what do you guys honestly think of my action-writing skills. Is it bad, good, neither? Also how do you think i could improve writing-wise. English isn't exactly my first language so i might not be able to write certain things, like emotions, properly.**

 **Tell me what you guys think, 'cause it's kinda killing me that i don't know if my grammar is acceptable.**

 **As always, thanks for reading, review the chapter if you have the time or feel like it, and have a good weekend**


	5. So Below

_**New Singapore, Eden Prime, 11:00 Local Time 2192 AD**_

"Hey boss, you ain't gonna like this"

Zaeed turned his attention to what the private had said. He looked closer at what he was pointing at with the binoculars

"What in the Goddamn…" and then cursed under his breath.

A group of civilians were trying to make their way to the subway. Problem is that the subway is closed and all trains deactivated

"Vito, take Jedore and Vosque and bring those civvies here"

Vito looked at him incredulously

"Wouldn't it be even more dangerous for them to be here rather than down there?"

Zaeed looked back at him

"I know it is, but I'd rather have them here, compared to doing God knows what God knows where, and getting killed by God knows who." After a brief pause, Zaeed added "And 'sides that, at least we'll have some extra pair of hands if we need them"

Understanding that, Vito took the two soldiers he was assigned and ran off towards the group of civilians.

It took a few minutes until they had reached the civilian group. Through the binoculars, Zaeed could see that the civilians we're hesitant to follow.

However several shots were fired from across the street they were in. Most of the shots missed. But a lady from the group, probably around her fourties, was shot. Vito had pushed the group into cover, and was hunched behind a concrete barrier. He peeked around the side to try and assess the lady's condition. He saw that she had taken a shot through the left shoulder. Her coat was turning into a blood red color. She started screaming for help.

"Jedore, Vosque, give me some suppressive fire!"

Vito bolted out of cover as his squadmates complied. Running in a zig-zag pattern across the street, he held on to his helmet and hunched his body as to make a smaller target. He dropped onto prone when he reached the lady. Looking at the wound, he saw that it wasn't as bad as he thought it would be. Vito took her by the good arm and dragged her back to cover. As soon as he did, Jedore went up to the lady to treat her wounds.

"Medigel should seal the wound" She said as she packed her medical supplies back in. "No major artery was hit, she's lucky"

Acknowledging that, Vito ordered the group to make its way back to the building that the rest of his squad had fortified.

A few shots pinged on his cover, one of them nearly grazing his face. Cursing, he popped out of cover when the enemy fire lessened, and took a few potshots at the enemy. Even if he had hit an enemy, he wouldn't have done any serious damage. The Batarian infantry had shields, blocking most bullets until the generator couldn't keep up and needed to recharge. In a stroke of bad luck, Vito didn't have any D-Rounds packed in his magazines.

He retreated into a concrete barrier a few meters back. No doubt that the group would have reached the fortified building by now. If he could somehow lure the enemy unit into range, the squad's sniper, Dan, could knock a few of them out. Dan had been wise enough to pack in D-Rounds for his sniper rifle. He could effectively pick off individual infantry without having to deal with shields.

Rounding a corner, Vito ran straight towards the building entrance.

"There's sixteen of them!" he said as he jumped into cover inside the building.

As the first Batarian rounded the corner, Dan fired his rifle and killed one. He breathed then exhaled, firing two more shots. One shot had missed while the other landed on a Batarian's chest, sprouting out orange blood from the tennis ball sized hole that had been carved by it. Letting out a small sound of amusement, Dan zeroed in on another Batarian. This one was smart enough to be taking cover. It was a shame that one of his legs were sticking out however. Shooting at the leg, the Batarian jerked and fell out of cover. Dan took another shot and blew his head off.

The rest of the Batarians had wisely decided to not follow their now dead colleague's example and hunkered down. One of them threw a smoke grenade over their cover. As smoke began to pour through, Dan's visibility on the Batarians became hindered

"I lost visual" he calmly said, going back into cover.

Zaeed nodded and ordered some of the other soldiers

"Tye, Hakim, cover the door" he said as he moved to a better position to attack the enemy.

The two soldiers positioned themselves on the side of the doorway, giving them the advantage as they can see the Batarians as they go through the doorway, and can shoot them as soon as they do.

They listened for footsteps, hearing the 'tap-tap' of the Batarian feet. As the sounds got louder, the soldiers shouldered their rifles and aimed at the door's general direction.

The door opened, and half a dozen Batarians barged in the room. Tye and Hakim fired their rifles immediately, catching the Batarian invaders off guard. One of the invaders crumpled down in pain, screaming as he did. His friend was far more fortunate, in the head and dropping dead instantly.

The other Batarians had realized what was happening, and scrambled for cover. As aliens took cover, Zaeed sprung from his position, behind the Batarian invaders, and let loose a volley of bullets. While he had hit several of them, tearing down one of their shields, and flushing others out of cover. Seeing the Batarians in panic, Hakim pushed out of his cover and attacked the enemy at close range. He switched from his rifle to his SERBU shotgun and rushed one of the Batarians, knocking the alien to his back. Hakim shoved the shotgun up the alien's face, and pulled the trigger. The shot bypassed the shield entirely, being too close to the body. Hakim was hit on the side by a hit from another Batarian. The attacker had tried to do to him what he did to the other Batarian, pointing a pistol directly at his face. Hakim reacted instantly, kneeing the attacker and then knocking the pistol out of his hand. The Batarian got back up and pulled out a curved knife, prompting Hakim to pull out his own knife.

The two of them attacked each other viciously, sending out slashes and stabs as soon as an opportunity presented itself. The fight went on for a bit, the both of them were focused, eyeing each other like apex predators fighting in the wilds. Hakim watched as the Batarian reared back and lunged forward for what he had assumed was a downward stab. He responded to block the attack, raising his arm to block it, but the attack turned out to be a feint, and the Batarian landed a few inches away from where Hakim had expected him to be. The Batarian then charged forward and tackled Hakim, sending him down, before putting his knee down on Hakim's chest and put the knife at his throat. Right as the Batarian was about to stab him, a loud crash was heard. Shields flared around the Batarian, a crash was heard again, and the Batarian's head had gone missing.

Hakim wiped the orange blood off his face and armor

"I had that under control" he said

"Sure you did" Tye replied casually, holding out Hakim's shotgun "Come on, a judge ain't in working order if he ain't got his hammer"

Hakim took the gun and made a small laugh at the pun that Tye had made

"You keep making shitty puns like that and I'm going to have to whoop your sorry ass"

"Only for you brother" Tye said, patting his back

They checked their ammo then walked up to Zaeed, who had was searching one of the Batarian's bodies

"What you looking for boss?" Tye said

Zaeed then seemed to find what he was looking for, unclipping some kind of bracelet from the alien's wrist, then wearing it on his own. After a moment of him waving his hand like he was crazy, an orange hologram appeared from it.

"Bingo" he said as he scrolled around what Hakim assumed was the device's screen

"They call it an omni-tool" Zaeed said "Got word from ArFoCom* that they wanted as many working ones as possible"

Hakim looked closer, inspecting the glowing, orange device.

"I'm guessing that it works something like our nComs?" Hakim said, referring to the commonly used mobile devices, a hand held device used to access pretty much anything digital or on the internet. It was called the pinnacle of mobile computing, but didn't have as much computing power as the average computer.

"True" Zaeed said, unclipping the device from his wrist. "It's one of their main communication devices when their out on the field. The Eggheads back at the hot labs wants them intact. What little they have to work with either has corrupted data, or they can't access it" Zaeed said as he searched another Batarian "I'm not sure how they do it, don't really care either. As long as it helps us kill more four-eyes, I'm fine with it"

-000-

 _ **Shuttle 47, Departing from HNS Trinitus, Over Eden Prime, 2945 PSC**_

"Ready for your first drop, New Blood?" the Turian squad leader. At his age of 42, Force Commander Junius Sark was a very experienced veteran. Especially for a Turian. His actions early in the Council-Hierarchy war had sent him skyrocketing up in the meritocracy. He was part of the first batch of Blackwatch troopers, and his superiors often used him as an example for what a Turian should strive to be.

He looked at the young Turian in front of him. His plates were pale, and he lacked any face markings. A Bare-face

' _He must be space born then. Rather rare, considering how most of our kind avoid flying unless necessary'_

"Absolutely, sir"

The young Turian said as he looked up at him, his expressions showed that he was ready, but if his twitching mandibles said anything, it would be that he was afraid

' _No, more like anxious'_

They were deploying into a colony belonging to a race that they had only met not even six hours ago. Even Junius himself was apprehensive.

"Try to relax" Junius said, although he wondered if it was to the young Turian, or himself "If these 'Humans' are anything like what we were told, then we'd get along just fine"

"Yes sir" the Bare-faced Turian said, taking a deep breath. "Thank you, sir"

"Keep your head low and follow orders. You do all of that, and you'll make it out of here alive" A Turian from the front of the shuttle said "So just keep your wits about you. Alright Saren?"

"Of course" was all he would say.

-000-

 ***ArFoCom: Armed Forces Command, Central headquarters of the Alliance Armed Forces, like the Pentagon for the US Military. The highest ranking military officials can be found in this part of Arcturus Station**

 **And that wraps up the first part of the ground combat, sort of.**

 **Sorry for being kinda late, I got cought up in school, and didn't get any chance to work on this one for a bunch of days.**

 **Chapter introduces Zaeed, and the would-have-been Blue Suns. Vito Santiago, Jedore, and Darner Vosque. Hakim, Dan, and Tye are OC's, like Sokolov and Rodney from the previous chapter.**

 **I'm not sure if i should work on the Blackwatch squad POV or Hackett's POV, i'm gonna try and work on them both and see how it turns up. If both goes well i might turn them both into chapters.**

 **The reception to the story has been really good thus far, WAAAY better than i thought it would have done. Thank you for everyone who bothered to read, it means quite a lot to me.**

 **Once again, thanks for reading. Please report any grammatical errors you find if possible, and leave a review if you feel like it. And i hope that i can get a chapter done soon**


	6. Silence is Key

_**Shuttle 47, Tarkov City Outskirts, Eden Prime, 1:34 PM, 2945 PSC**_

Saren got out of the shuttle and looked out towards the city, one of many detected from orbit. It was beautiful, but was visibly scarred by battle.

"Alright soldiers, listen up. We have orders to link up with a Human military unit, a few kilometers away." Junius said "Orbital imaging says that there's a clear route leading to it. Hostiles are confirmed to be patrolling the area, be on the lookout for any Batarians." He disabled the safety on his weapon, and looked back to his team. "Let's get moving"

As the group of Turians made their way through the route, Saren followed at the back of the formation. His rifle was always shouldered, and one could tell from his tense mandibles that he was high on alert. He took careful glances to the sides, checking them for any hostiles and trying to take his mind off the topic of these Humans.

' _What are they like?'_ he thought to himself. _'Are they aggressive like the Krogan, or naturally devious like the Salarians? Perhaps they act like the Asari. They do look disturbingly similar.'_ Saren shook his head. Now is the time to be focused. If he slips up, the whole team could be wiped out.

They pushed further through the path, the route cut through a small forest. The route was still clear, but anybody could ambush them fairly easily, so long as they could keep quiet while hiding behind the trees.

There was a rustle behind him, Saren pointed his rifle up at the tree where the sound came from. As he inspected the tree, a large, rodent jumped out of the plant and ran off, deeper into the forest.

"I'm getting too wound up"Saren said to himself. He caught up with the rest of the team, and they pushed further into the forest, until a small clearing showed up ahead of them.

"Hold up" Junius said. The entire team complied and stopped their movement. "Six Batarians, 12 meters, that way. Looks like they've set up some kind of watch-point" Pointing towards a small clearing that had makeshift fortifications on it.

"The Four-Eyes are scattered far enough for us to sneak up on them." One of the Turians, Vetran, said. "Better we take them out silently. That way we won't have half the Batarian army coming after us"

"I agree." Junius said "Arterius and Halis, take down the two near the trees. Vetran, Kalidon, sneak up on the two on the other side of the road. Kesarus and I will take the ones at the edge of their little outpost."

Saren nodded and went with Halis, moving from cover to cover, trying to hide themselves from the Batarians. As they entered close quarter combat range, Saren looked towards Junius, who in turn nodded to him. Junius then pulled out his knife and then stabs the Batarian he was targeting. Kesarus follows suit, and then they drag the body away from sight.

Finally realizing something is off, two of the Batarians, the ones that Vetran and Kalidon were tasked to deal with, went off to investigate. Halis drew two knives, and threw the two Batarians near him. The knives were too slow for the kinetic barriers to detect, and struck the Batarians in the neck. Seeing a clear shot at the two Batarians that are inspecting their missing comrades, Saren focused on them, and then shot his hand out. He put his mind into the very fabric of space and time itself, and called for it to stop. The Batarians got caught in a stasis field, unable to speak or move, leaving them unable to defend themselves as Vetran and Kalidon slit their throats.

"Nice work with the stasis, Saren." Vetran said, cleaning his knife on a Batarian's corpse.

"Thanks, I've been working on that one for a while now."

"Alright, great work. Now let's get these bodies out of the open. Don't want the enemy to notice us too soon." Junius said.

After a few minutes of them dragging the bodies away, they set out again on the trail. Once again, Saren was at the rear of the group.

"Let's speed this up soldiers, the meet-up point shouldn't be too far away now. Better not keep these Humans waiting." Junius ordered, now speeding up to a jog

-000-

"Damnit Collins, you nearly blew our cover!" a soldier reprimanded his colleague

"It's not my damn fault that stupid ass falcon-rat had its nest next to my position" Collins retorted

"Cut the chatter you two" the Boss said "They're on the move again, better we follow them a bit further now"

"I don't see much point in keeping too much distance Boss. Our cloaking tech is far better than anything the Batarians have. If Four-Eyes can't see us, I doubt they can." Carla, the team sniper, said

"These Turians mightn't have the ability to see infrared naturally like the Batarians, but they seem to have sharper vision." Boss said "If we stay too close, chances are they might see us. Better play it safe with these, uh, people."

"I agree. We're not completely invisible, they might spot the light distortions if we get too close" Anderson, the point-man said

"See that Carla? Anderson agrees with the Boss. Why do you have to stick up to the Boss every time he says something?" Collins asked

"Anderson was in the Marine Corps dipshit, they didn't train him to ask too many questions." Carla answered.

"You two are gonna be the death of me." The first soldier, Annette said

"That's enough" Boss said, silencing everyone. "We're losing track of the Turians, we better start moving now."

The entire squad agreed, and began to follow the Turians again, albeit now from a further distance. They followed quietly on foot, making little to no noise, and their tactical cloaks keeping them practically invisible. They stopped when the Turians spotted a group of Batarians.

"ArFoCom wants as many recordings of these guys operating as possible. I want everyone capturing whatever they can, the more details caught, the better."

The team acknowledged, and spread out to cover as many angles as they can. They watched as the Turians dispatched a group of Batarians quietly. One by one, the Batarians fell, killed silently by the Turian Special Forces. But the moment that really shocked everyone was when one of the Turians had shot out his arm, and a blue energy flew from him to two Batarians, freezing two Batarians in their tracks and vulnerable to attack.

"Holy crap, they've got wizards!" Collins said, the surprise obvious in his voice. "That shit ain't supposed to be possible"

"For once, I agree." Annette replied

"Good thing we were recording this, the eggheads back at home are going to go nuts over this" Anderson said.

They watched again as the Turians picked up the corpses and dragged them to a place where it's less likely to be seen. The Turian that they assumed to be the leader ordered his, at least they thought it was a he, soldiers to keep moving.

"They're getting close to the location Boss. We better get there fast." Carla said.

The Boss agreed, and they headed out, going through a shortcut that they knew of, but the Turians didn't. It took them a few minutes, and while their arrival was a bit too close for comfort, they did reach the meet-up point before the Turians did.

"Hey Boss, heads up." Collins said.

They looked over to where the Turians had finally showed up. The Boss nodded and got rid of his cigarette.

"Try to look somewhat surprised." He said. The Boss walked over to the Turian leading the group. "Hello, welcome to Eden Prime." He then began to point at his team members. "Our call signs are Redeemer (Annette), Dagger (Carla), Wisecrack (Collins) and Raider (Anderson)." He then pointed to himself "My call sign is Boss."

The Turian looked at each member, then held his hand out, presumably to shake hands with the Boss, who simply took the hand and shook it.

"I'm Force Commander Junius, these are my soldiers: Arterius, Vetran, Hallis, Kesarus, and Kalidon."

"Alright. I'm assuming that we're to be working together." Boss said.

"We are, Lieutenant Commander Trevanian has given us autonomy to work with you as required." The Turian answered

"Excellent." The Boss nodded to Annette. She stepped forward and placed a holographic projector on the ground. She then took out her nCom, and activated the projector. "The Batarians have built up a Forward Operating Base on top of Kusarigama Hill. They have refueling and restock station deployed. We are going to go in there, destroy the station, and get out."

Junius examined the map that had materialized from the projector.

"It looks like they've set up with a large forest by their south." He said. "We can probably sneak in from there."

Hallis pointed at a tower on the map. "Those sentry towers are going to be a problem. They have direct line of sight over the refueling station."

"What if the sentries are looking at something else?" Collins said.

"A distraction?" Kesarus said.

"Yeah, if a group would somehow get 'discovered' by the sentries on the other direction, they'd be too busy dealing with them to pay attention to the station."

"It could work. Who would be going though?" Junius said as he contemplated.

"Our group is larger, sir. We would have better chances by numbers. Besides, the Batarians won't be expecting a Turian Blackwatch squad in the middle of this place." Kalidon said.

"It could work. While the Turians distract the enemies, we will sneak behind them, plant the charges, detonate it, then in the middle of all the chaos, both teams can pull out." Anderson said.

"Anybody got a problem with this?" The Boss said and looked around. When he saw that no one had disagreed, he nodded to Annette. She deactivated the projector and packed it up. "Alright then people, let's get rolling."

-000-

 **CODEX Entry:**

 **Systems Alliance Equipment:** The Systems Alliance, unlike their Batarian foes, have not fully implemented mass effect technology for military use. Their ships still use a nuclear generator to power the ship, but does have a Mass Effect drive for ftl uses and such. Magnetic accelerator rails are still utilized to launch their slugs, and their rifles still use conventional balistics as opposed to grain projectiles used by the Batarians. Both vehicular and infantry based ammo has modified variants available for use. D-rounds, short for Distruptor Rounds, is heavily utilized by the Systems Alliance military as it contains an EMP charge that helps it weaken, or bypass, shields altogether. Other ammo mods include AP rounds (armor piercing), Incindiary rounds, and HX Rounds (High Explosive)

 **The Council/Hierarchy First Contact:** When the Council first discovered the Turians, they had already been expanding for over two hundred years. As the planets they were inhabiting were incompatible with the Council races, they are generally ignored, allowing for the Turians to be undiscovered for so long. A Salarian mining company had sents ships to mine the asteroid fields, which were believed to be rich in metallic elements and eezo. while both is true, the Turians had already began operations there, building a colony and mining outposts in the system. When the Council ambassador team had met with them, the Turians had been offered membership, but the Primarch of Palaven at the time had politely refused, claiming that joining the Council will not be in the Hierarchy's best interests. Trade and communications would later develop between them, the Volus in particular being big fans.

 **The Krogan Federation:** During the Rachni wars, the Salarian STG agent who was in charge of uplifting the Krogan people had noted that the subjects bred rapidly and was very aggressive when in packs. When reported to the STG HQ, he recieved the order to utilize the already constructed Shroud machine to modify the Krogans just enough to lessen their aggressiveness and breeding rates. After the Rachni wars itself was done, the Asari Councilor at the time sent a team to help educate the Krogan populace. This proved very successful, as both species revered their Matriarchs. The Krogan clans, while still holding internal autonomy are a part of a larger federation, complete with a functioning parliament system. The Krogans then gained a seat as a councilor for their outstanding service to the galaxy, followed shortly by the Volus a few decades later.

 **A/N**

 **Sorry that this chapter came out really late, midterms came about and i had to study for it. Anyways, thanks for being patient.**

 **So some users might be confused on some things, and then again, i haven't fleshed out this AU further either, so from this chapter on, i will be adding a few CODEX entries to try and build up the universe a bit, so that things aren't as confusing.**

 **Anyways, thanks for reading, leave your thoughts on reviews or PM me, and have a good day.**


	7. High Explosive

_**Kusarigama Hill, Eden Prime, June 12, 2192 AD, 05:44 PM Local Time.**_

Just as Junius had predicted, the joint Turian/Human group managed to infiltrate the Batarian FOB from the forest south of it.

Saren looked observed the base, quite a several Batarian gunships have returned to restock their ammo. He could see that a truck filled with missiles have arrived and is unloading the missiles that would be loaded onto the gunship. The Humans had already split away and in position to make a move on the station. The radio sounded, and the Human squad leader spoke through it.

 _"We're in position, begin phase two."_

That was the signal. Saren and the rest of his squad emerged from their hiding place and opened fire on the unsuspecting Batarians. Several of the enemies were immediately cut down by a hail of bullets. The alarm was sounded and soon Batarians began to flood the position. Saren fired his rifle at a group of lower caste Batarians, the ones without kinetic barriers. One of them fell down, orange blood spilling on the ground. His friends attempted to drag him out of the open, but Hallis saw the opportunity and brought his LMG to bear on the group. He pulled the trigger on the LMG and rained death on the four Batarians. The entire group got shredded by the combined fire from Saren and Hallis. Ducking under cover, Saren checked his ammo, he had around a fifteen rounds left on his magazine. While it sounded like a lot, the incredibly high rate of fire the gun had meant that he could shoot all those fifteen rounds in less than four seconds. He popped out of cover again and emptied his gun at the general direction of another Batarian squad. He could see one of the Batarians have his shields flare around him, signaling that it had been disabled. Saren then charged a biotic attack, and hurled a vicious throw attack. The Batarian in question was blasted back, and _crunched_ as he smashed into a container several meters behind him.

Saren ducked back into cover and removed the empty magazine from his rifle, sliding in a new one to replace it, and gave the gun a slap to its side to make sure the rounds loaded in properly.

"Fall back! Trade ground for bodies." Junius ordered.

The squad complied, starting with Hallis as he ran back first, setting up his LMG on a small barrier block. He proceeded to suppress the enemy with his gun as the rest of the squad fell back. The Batarian forces, seeing the Turians losing ground, eagerly chased after them, only to find out that the Turians had planted mines on the place where they had left. Too late to realize it, a dozen lower and middle caste soldiers blew up in a in a hail of fire and shrapnel. As they learned from their mistakes, the Batarians moves slowly and more cautiously. However this presented a problem of its own as they became either too easy to pick off, or too easily bogged down.

"Tank!" Kalidon shouted in the middle of all the chaos.

A Batarian heavy tank moved into view, swinging one of its broadside cannons to aim at the Blackwatch squad. The cannon fired, punching a hole on one of the walls they were taking cover behind.

"Kesarus, take that thing down!" Junius ordered.

"Didn't need to tell me that!" he shouted back, already setting up the rocket launcher.

It took a few more seconds, but Kesarus had deployed the weapon in time, and fired an AT rocket at the tank. The rocket punched through the armor, and detonated, igniting the fuel and explosives inside it. The tank went up in flames, taking several Batarians that had taken cover behind it.

"Hah! Four-eyes didn't expect us to be here!" Kalidon said as he gunned down another Batarian.

Saren admired that Turian. He could be in the middle of the toughest firefights, but still be able to crack a joke or two. Saren got up and hurled a singularity field at a group of Batarians. They became helpless as Kesarus fired a High Explosive rocket at the group, detonating in the middle of them and ripping their bodies into shreds. Saren ducked down as the Batarians retaliated with their own rockets, one of which zoomed past where his chest would be had he been standing. Several explosions burned behind him. Saren used the fire as a distraction and got up to fire his rifle at one of the rocket troopers. One of the rocket troopers had tried to fire again, but Saren had shot him first, causing his rocket to veer off course, hitting the ground beside Saren instead.

The explosion blasted Saren of his feet, launching him a few meters away. Fighting the dizziness, Saren opened up his eyes and saw more than a dozen Batarians charging at them. As they rushed forward, strange sounds from behind them caught Saren's attention.

 _Thunk, thunk, thunk._

A small whistling noise was heard for a short while after that, then the charging Batarians were killed by explosions. When the smoke and dust cleared, Saren saw the Human soldiers rushing towards them. The one with the call-sign Raider grabbed his hand and dragged him up. Saren regained his bearings and took cover along with the Humans.

"What took you so long?" Saren said, unholstering his pistol

"Yeah, we had to take a detour." Raider said brandishing what Saren assumed was a detonator. "Gather your friends, this place is going to hell!"

Saren nodded and rushed to the rest of his squad. He grabbed Junius by the shoulder and pointed at the Humans, who were opening fire at the Batarians. Junius got the message and ordered the rest of the squad to get out of the area. As Saren was running, he looked back and saw the Humans use the weapon that had saved his life earlier.

 _Thunk, thunk, thunk._

The Batarian group exploded in a shower of fire and sparks. The Humans ran back, following the Turians through the forest that they had come in from in the first place. The Humans quickly caught up with the Turian group, running alongside one another. After a good few minutes of running, Raider took the detonator and pressed the red button on it. The forest, while concealing the group, was situated on a hill and gave the group a good view of the FOB. There was a rumbling noise, then the fuel tanks exploded, catching some gunships that were trying to take off in the blast. The explosions didn't stop there however, as the command post, the armor pool, the barracks, and then the armory went up in flames too. Kesarus looked at the carnage with tightened mandibles

"Damn, and I thought you loved explosions Kes, they're going to run you out of business!" Kalidon said, chuckling.

"Shut up Kal." Kesarus replied.

It was impressive, really. When they first met up with the Humans, they didn't look like they brought more than a couple or two kilograms of explosives. Either their explosives are really that powerful, or they 'borrowed' some of the Batarian's own explosives and destroyed the entire base with it. Both of which proved the brutal and resourceful nature of Humanity.

"Let's hope they don't decide to turn on us." Saren quietly.

-000-

 **CODEX Entry:**

 **Turian Hierarchy Arms and Munitions:** By the time the Council and the Hierarchy went to war, the Hierarchy had already fully adopted Mass Effect technology into it's equipment. This especially fits into the Navy's battle doctrine of "Strike as many times as possible before retaliation" very well, as the Mass Effect tech allows their ships and vehicles move very quickly from place to place. This had not been realized as well as it could have with infantry weapons however. The standard issue service rifle the Turians use, the T-19 Banshee, can empty it's magazine in less than 20 seconds, which says a lot as the standard magazine carries up to seventy eight rounds. The modified version of the Banshee, the T-19 A model which is used heavily by the Hierarchy Blackwatch, has a slightly lower firing rate, but not low enough to solve the problem permanently. Hierarchy firearms fire 3mm pellets using mass accaccelerators, allowing it to be fired at 3 times the velocity, of previous Hierarchy weapons. Pellets made of hyper-conductive material is often used with rifle barrel mods to create a small EMP field that would distrupt shields.

 **JCN/Joint Citadel Navy:** After the Krogans gained their seat on the Council, one of the first things the councilor at the time, Matriarch Gatatog Shiagur, assessed the military capability of the Council as a single force, and found the results to be very disapointing. To remedy this, Councilor Shiagur called for the formation of the Joint Citadel Navy, comprised of ships 'donated' from various races to work alongside each other whenever they are needed. The JCN is headed by a High Admiral, who serve 10 year terms at a limit of 5 terms. The first High Admiral, surprisingly, was a Salarian. Voted in by the admiralty board of the JCN, Jagor Teph finally put in motion his life long dream: a campaign to eradicate piracy based inside Council space once and for all. However, he died before he could achieve this dream. His successor, Urdnot Galagor, continued the crusade, eventually wiping out all major pirate gangs operating within Council space. It wouldn't be until his death that pirates began running operations inside Council space again, but never building a base of operations in it. As of today, the JCN is consisted of 5 fleets, mainly composed of Asari ships, some Salarian ships are also in service, although they are mainly support ships with the exception of one dreadnought, and only a handful of Krogan ships. Despite being the biggest supporters of the JCN, the Krogan are still rather unskilled at naval combat, often preferring to have a few Krogan Legions riding on Asari ships, ready to be deployed the moment they enter atmosphere.

-000-

 **A/N**

 **I do hope my action writing has improved, seeing as this the most action heavy chapter so far. Also, i've managed to figure out the different date systems for the different groups, but i've decided to just stick with our calendar system, because it's going to be much easier to understand. The characters from the other societies will still use their own date system, but for the header sections, i will only be using our basic gregorian calendar. Also, the battle of Eden Prime should be finished in the next two or three chapters, after that it's the liberation of Shanxi. I'm not sure if my pacing is too slow or too fast, or if it's all over the place, so tell me on that one guys.**

 **Thanks for reading, as always. write down your thoughts on a review, or PM me and enjoy the rest of the day.**


	8. Covert Extraction

_**Hades-4 Bunker, Eden Prime, June 14, 2192 AD, 08:44 PM Local Time.**_

"Tyson, update."

Field Major Jack Harper was in charge of all Alliance Central Intelligence operations in the Anchorage sector. His superior, Colonel Jürgen was killed when her shuttle was shot down by Batarian fighters. It also didn't help that General Volter had decided to lead from the field and not from his command bunker, leaving another position for Harper to manage.

"Sir, the main Batarian force has landed at Wellington Valley, they have also turned the area into their main staging grounds for their ground forces. Squad 13, with help from the Turians have managed to destroy one of their makeshift airfield at Kusarigama hill, crippling their air support and giving us air superiority in that part of the sector." A dark skinned man read from the computer screen, scrolling down to review data that's always being updated.

Harper lit a cigarette and took a long drag from it.

"A large Batarian group is making their way towards Yeller and Moore. Fighting is still underway in New Singapore and Canton City. Still no word from both Kellertown and Dellaren. Several other minor towns have gone off the grid as well. Squads 18 and 22 are engaged in New Singapore and Canton City respectively. Nothing from Squad 13 is currently deep inside enemy lines, and have not reported again." Tyson continued.

Harper looked at the Holo-Projection of Anchorage. All the information that Tyson had read was highlighted, along with a large timer indicating 9th fleet's ETA.

23 more hours to go.

Harper let out a deep sigh.

"Those towns that the Batarians hit aren't the most important settlements in Anchorage, all of them combined hardly provide enough food nor materials for them to make a sizeable contribution to the sector." Harper observed. He looked over the map again. He studied the Batarian's projected movements, and the potential targets. He came to a conclusion that he should have seen earlier, given the circumstances. "The Batarians are hitting targets of opportunity instead of targets of critical importance!"

He should have seen it sooner. The Alliance had prepared their defenses for a full invasion. That meant massing their troops in important infrastructure and major cities. This was a smash and grab raid, which would require a different approach.

"Tyson, contact General Volter, tell him that the Batarians aren't following their usual strategies. Recommend that he divert some of his forces to protect some of the lower priority locations. We need to be more aggressive to counter their attack."

"Already done, sir." The younger information officer said.

Things seemed to calm down a bit after that. General Volter had received the message and had already began to reroute available troops to some of the smaller towns. From the information that Harper was receiving, the troops were still a few hours out from their destinations, while the Batarians could be ready to attack the towns within a minute.

Overall, things were not going well for Harper at the moment.

"Son of a… Sir, Three Batarian ships have entered the atmosphere! Readings show that they're in direct trajectory towards New Singapore."

Scratch that, things were terrible.

"Damnit! Alert Valhalla Airbase, we need to intercept those ships or else the troops in New Singapore will be decimated!" Harper ordered. He leaned intently on the holo-projector as three blips appeared high above Anchorage.

A frigate and two corvettes.

' _This isn't good, if the Batarians can get their ships into position above the city, they can smash our local air support and leave our ground forces around the area vulnerable to air strikes.'_ Harper thought to himself.

"Bad news sir, General Matsuo says all of their interceptors are tied up in other fronts." Tyson said.

Harper grit his teeth.

"What do they have that we can use? They can't possibly have all their forces tied up!"

"Uh, the General said that the only thing that they can spare at the moment is a gunship unit. They can have it loaded with anti-ship rockets in less than an hour." Tyson relayed as he brought up the gunship unit's file.

X-Ray Squadron, a well decorated unit led by Lieutenant Colonel Travis Moreau. Rather young, considering his rank. His track record shows that a large majority of their operations are successes, with those that are failures being an extremely narrow defeat.

Harper was in deep thought. A gunship squadron can't stand against the combined firepower of three starships, even with weapons designed to fight superior foes. A thought struck him at that moment. If he couldn't bring the ships down from the outside, he may have to try it from the inside.

"Tyson, what is Squad 13's current status?"

"Eh?" Tyson looked up with a confused look on his face.

"A well trained squad of soldiers could either destroy a ship by way of sabotage, or could seize control of it. Sending them in while the gunships fight it from the outside yields a greater chance of success compared to trying to do them without each other."

"All right." Tyson searched the network for the squad "Boss's squad and the Turian soldiers last reported two hours ago when they engaged a Batarian company 14 kilometers north of Kellertown."

"Damn, that's deeper inside enemy lines than I thought. Tyson, do you think Moreau is capable of doing this?" Harper looked as if he was on edge. "I'm sure that sending them deep inside enemy lines to extract soldiers is pretty normal for them, but a pack of ships? I'm not so sure."

Tyson stopped to think about the question for a few seconds. Major Harper rarely asked him for his opinions. If, and when he did, it usually meant that things are starting go out of his control. Looking at X-Ray Squadron's records, he reviewed the things that they had done and compared it to their current situation.

"I think they'll make it through."

Harper looked straight into his eyes.

"You're sure?"

"I have faith in their capabilities."

"Faith? I guess that's all we can count on right now." Harper scoffed. "Call Lieutenant Colonel Moreau and tell him of his objectives. Make sure that he flies as soon as his squadron is ready. We may not have much time."

"Way ahead of you, sir."

-000-

 _ **Valhalla Airbase, Half an hour later**_

"Tower, this is X-Ray lead. We are locked, loaded, and ready to launch. What's the situation out there?"

The whine of Mass Effect engines could be heard in the distance as 16 Mi-144 'Rattlesnake' gunships and a CH-47 'Mammoth' transport craft powered on for what would be one of the most dangerous operations they have faced so far.

 _"Affirmative X-ray lead. Batarian forces are estimated to be company strength at minimum. Enemy air-support is minimal, but we have reports of AA batteries and missiles around key locations on the area. A radar emplacement was spotted 2 clicks away, on top of a ridge. We recommend you fly under a ceiling of 1 kilometer to avoid unnecessary attention."_ The tower operator said. _"You may launch in 2 minutes."_

Travis nodded quietly and ran through the details of the operation again. They were armed to the teeth with weapons that he considered overkill (under normal circumstances) and were ordered to pick up a group of soldiers and a their alien friends deep inside enemy, before delivering said soldiers board an alien frigate while they provide fire support.

It felt like another Tuesday.

Once they launched, Travis had pushed his gunship to full speed, going over 450 kilometers per hour. The flight towards Squad 13's last known position would take at the very least an hour and a few minutes to spare at best. Searching for the squad may take some more time.

However, considering the fact that it was night time, and Anderson's love of high explosive weaponry, looking for the turned out to be pretty easy.

" _Pretty sure that's them boss."_ A gunner from another gunship buzzed in from the radio. An explosion was seen from their position, high above the woods. A huge ball of fire erupted from between the trees as its boom was heard even through the loud hum of the craft's engines.

"Guess we're going where the explosions are at." Travis remarked.

The gunship squadron moved into position and changed its formation, with the Mammoth now at the rear. That transport craft's survival is important to the success of this mission.

The radio buzzed again with as X-Ray 2 shouted through the comms, The Nordic accent heard clearly.

" _Hey boss, we doing this clean or are we gonna make them shit their pants?"_

X-Ray 2 was referring to a certain technique that was seemingly forgotten by the armed forces into the middle of the 21st century.

"Hell yeah! Load up track 12 people, I feel like listening to the classics." Travis said as he pressed a few buttons on his mobile device. The device synced to the rest of the squadron's speakers, and began to play.

-000-

"Holy shit! How many fucking tanks do they have?" Collins shouted over the sounds of battle. He fired a burst at another Batarian before ducking down to reload. "I'm on my last mag!"

Things were going 'tits up' as Wisecrack, who Saren later learned was named Collins, would probably say.

Saren threw himself into cover beside the one named Anderson, who was busy throwing another grenade.

Anderson must have been getting tired, as the grenade didn't fly too far. Saren helped and gave a slight push to the grenade, rolling it into the middle of a Batarian squad, killing most of them and wounding the rest.

It wasn't that killing the Batarians were hard to kill. On the contrary in fact. Saren had scored quite the body count with his pistol and biotics alone. The problem was that there seemed to be no end to the Batarians trying to kill them.

Saren shook his head and focused again. He charged a warp and threw it a charging Batarian who was covering his friends behind some kind of ballistic shield. The shield vibrated and warped itself apart, allowing Carla to shoot him from her vantage point. The Batarians around him scattered into cover, stopping their small advance and relieving some of the pressure from the right side.

The tank was still a problem though.

Kesarus launched a rocket which then pierced the tanks side. It was an unlucky shot however, as the rocket exploded but only crippled the tank's right track. The tank used its remaining track to pivot itself and aim its broadside cannon at their position.

Collins charged at the tank, ignoring the fact that there were almost a dozen Batarians around the vehicle. He ran up near the cannon's barrel and stuffed a grenade into it. He ran back as the barrel exploded, but the shockwave threw him off balance. He tried to regain his balance, and he almost did, but a Batarian managed to get take aim and fire a burst from his rifle, hitting Collins in the back. The Human fell down with a scream of pain. Saren saw that the man needed help and launched a throw attack at the Batarian. The Batarian flew several meters and was knocked out. He then took Collin's rifle and began to drag the wounded man back into cover. Annette ran to try and patch him up with medigel. Anderson took the rifle from Saren and checked its ammo. It had only ten shots left.

Anderson cursed under his breath. Saren did too.

The ground rumbled again, causing Saren to peek out of cover. The tank was still operational.

 _Shit._

The heavy vehicle moved around to use its other broadside cannon. Saren looked to Kes, who seemed to get the message, but replied with

"I'm out of rockets!"

That complicated _a lot_ of things.

The tank fired its cannon. The shell landed not too far away, blasting Annette and Anderson off their feet, and causing Collins to scream from the pain of the shockwave. At least, that's what Saren thought he did, as he couldn't hear anything aside from some very loud ringing.

A second passed, and then another. More explosions shook the ground. He laid on the ground and looked up to the sky with blurry vision. A large, black silhouette flew past.

 _What?_

Several more flew past him, and as his sight became clearer, he realized that those were the silhouettes of gunships.

Saren got up shakily, and looked to the direction of where the gunships had flown towards. He could see more than a dozen of them, flying in formation. They turned around and flew back towards their position. The ringing sound started fading, and then he heard strange sounds coming from the gunships. Not like a strange engine sound, or some other mechanical thing that one would expect from things like it. It sounded like an old instrument that his brother had thought him to play back home. The sounds slowly became clearer, the rhythm started becoming noticeable.

The gunships were playing music.

The noise of the music was occasionally cut off by the sounds of explosions, and machineguns shredding the Batarians.

The strumming noise of the music became more apparent, and so did the vocals.

" _Some folks are born, silver spoon in hands…"_ the music went before being drowned out by the roaring of the machineguns.

A large craft, one that Saren would assume would be extracting them, landed in a clearing not so very far away. Saren got up and pulled Anderson to his feet. He then helped him carry Collins towards the transport. The Boss (the only Human in the squad didn't his name) followed shortly with the rest of the Turians following.

They all entered the craft, which then one of the gunners shouted out that everyone was in. The craft's engine grew louder and began to take off, the rear hatch of the vehicle closing in behind them. Annette went to take care of Collins' wounds. Anderson sat down on one of the seats, and motioned for Saren to do the same. As he sat down, he was surprised at how nice the chair felt.

"Are all Human chairs this comfortable? Because I can get used to this." Kal joked, getting a laugh from Anderson and the other Humans.

"No, most of them are better." Anderson said, shifting slightly on his seat.

"Like or not, you should get comfortable." The Boss cut in. "We just got orders. Get comfy, sleep, or whatever you Turians do to rest. We're headed straight to the eye of the storm."

-000-

 **CODEX Entries:**

 **Council/Hierarchy Tension Buildup:** Leading up to the war, the Hierarchy had begun absorbing minor races found within what was declared Turian territory. The Council was not at all pleased at this, requesting the Hierarchy stop doing such. This led to several heated arguments between the Ambassadors, and on one occasion, a full-fledged fight. It was sufficed to say that Council/Hierarchy relations were in tatters. Escalation was also inevitable when several Primarchs became the targets of an attempted assassination which were traced back to an STG cell operating in Hierarchy space. The Salarian Union officially condemned the cell and called them rogue operatives. Things finally came to a head when fighting between JCN and Hierarchy Navy vessels both came into blows above the Salarian colony Sardan. Reports from the JCN ships claim that a two dozen Turian ships stormed out from FTL, began making demands to seize several Council registered merchant ships and then began shooting at said ships. All of the targeted ships were destroyed. The JCN fought against the Hierarchy ships, but at the time they were outnumbered, and most of them were destroyed too. Those that managed to escape reported back to the Fleet headquarters. Reports from Hierarchy ships say that they dropped out of FTL and demanded that merchant ships be turned in to their custody, as they claimed that the ships were operated by Hegemony sponsored pirates and slavers who had raided a Turian colony. The Hierarchy demanded that they be punished under Hierarchy law. Council historians regarded The Battle over Sardan as the first battle of The Great War, although historians from the Hierarchy and Alliance disapproves of this, and regards the Raid of Kendrais as the true opening battle of the half-century long conflict.

 **A/N**

 **I am really, really, really sorry for not updating sooner. I got caught up in school, and in between that I just couldn't bring myself to right more than a sentence per-day. Add to that the fact that I am a lazy schmuck, means that this chapter coming out very late was in fact, inevitable.**

 **So I finally played around with Jack Harper, currently a field agent in the ACI, although he will be rising the ranks fairly quickly soon.**

 **I will also try to be more focused on the individual in the coming chapters, until the need to include the 'larger perspective' comes anyway.**

 **Because I'm probably gonna upload the next chapter really late again, I'm just gonna drop in a few 'sneak peeks' (slight spoilers? IDK, Skip the numbers if you don't want to know) into the next few story arcs.**

 **1: Liberation of Shanxi will focus on a Williams character.**

 **2: Batarian Civil war, with Harper and some rebellious slave alien OCs as the focus. I haven't thought of their characters, but I need a Batarian, a Turian, and an Asari, so if y'all feel like submitting, fine by me.**

 **3: Sparatus will play a major role in the first contact with the Council.**

 **4: Battle of Fairixen (Fairexin, Farixen? My internet's dead atm of writing this so don't judge) and the Occupation of Nevos, with Wrex, Aethyta, and Squad 13**

 **Most of these should be *kind of* representative of what would happen in the future. Not sure how these are gonna be pulled off, but these are the things that *WILL* be in the story.**

 **nComs will be referred to as mobile devices, or devices, because I just figured writing would be easier that way.**

 **Anyways, thanks for being patient, again, sorry for updating so late. I will try to write faster, hopefully with good quality too. Review if you feel like it, or PM me if don't like reviewing. Tell me your thoughts. Thanks and enjoy the rest of the day (night, whatever).**


	9. Boarding Action

_**Over New Singapore, Eden Prime, June 15, 01:17 AM Local Time.**_

The Mammoth craft shook as an anti-aircraft shell exploded by it and turned sharply, going behind a small ridge as to avoid further shots from the Corvette's auto-cannons.

Anderson awoke from his sleep to find that they were already close to their target. He shook his head to try and wake himself up. Looking around the craft, he saw that everyone else was preparing for the upcoming fight, save for Collins, who was injured badly, and Carla, who volunteered to stay back and take care of the wounded man.

"My sniper's gonna be useless in there, it'd be better if I hang back and take care of the dipshit." She said when he asked.

Collins could only grumble something incomprehensible in reply. Probably because he was still high as a kite from all the medigel given to him.

Anderson resupplied his ammo and gear from the supply crate. He then looked at Saren, who was sitting across to him was inspecting a rifle identical to his own. The Boss probably agreed to lend the Turians some of their weapons, considering that they were pretty low at ammo.

"You going to be using that?" Anderson asked him.

"Yeah, my own rifle is probably molten slag in that crater you made two days ago, and my pistol is out of ammo." Saren answered as he flipped the weapon over to see its other side. "Besides, it doesn't seem too different from the rifles we have. One of the things they made sure we know on Blackwatch training was how to adapt, and use anything and everything to our advantage. I wouldn't worry too much if I were you."

Anderson grunted an agreement and looked over to the rest of the Turians. Hallis still had plenty of ammo on his LMG, and apart from being out of rockets, Kesarus had enough ammo on his shotgun (Razor-gun as the Turian called it) to hold another confrontation.

The other Turians were either inspecting their borrowed rifles, like Junius and Vetran, while the rest of the squad had given Kal what's left of their rifle ammo.

Anderson heard the muffled sounds of explosions, and the craft's intercom buzzed as the craft's pilot all but shouted through it.

" _They knocked a hole in their defense grid. I'm dropping you folks at the top of that frigate!"_

All of the soldiers got up and stood near the rear hatch. Anderson could feel the Mammoth speed up and zig-zag as to avoid getting hit by the second corvette. Out of the view port, he could see the gunships weaving through the fire like a dance. Moving in to fire a volley of bullets and rockets, then retreating to prepare for another run. One of the gunships pulled out too slow, and was cut in half by the frigate's GARDIAN laser.

The other gunships moved in together to perform an attack that would overwhelm the frigate's defense grid, just for a few moments. They flew in formation, and all at once fired an entire volley of rockets. The Mammoth flew in behind the volley, letting the rockets soak up most of the point defense shots. The GARDIAN lasers started overheating, and stopped firing altogether so that it could cool down. Out of the 43 rockets fired, less than a dozen hit the ship.

The Mammoth used the distraction and made a quick drop on top of the frigate. Hovering over it as it opened its rear hatch, allowing the N7 marines and the Blackwatch operators to drop out. The craft then left as quickly as it had come, flying away at full speed as the frigate's point defense lasers finished cooling down.

The soldiers ran towards what they had identified as a maintenance hatch. They grouped around it, then Anderson placed a high explosive breaching charge on the hatch.

"Charge set!" He shouted out as he backed away.

The Boss nodded at him confirming that they are ready to go.

Anderson detonated the charge, then Annette threw a stun-grenade into the whole that he had made. After the tell-tale flash of the device, the three Humans jumped in and opened fire on the five Batarian soldiers who were supposed to stop them. When the area seemed clear, the Boss signaled the Turians to enter the ship.

Once they were all inside, they moved on towards the general direction of their target. This wasn't Squad 13's first boarding action so they knew what they should be doing. Their first attempt at boarding Hegemony ships would be in their infiltration op on a Cruiser, docked in a Batarian shipyard above Shanxi during Operation Chain Breaker, the failed attempt at liberating the colony. Batarian ships followed a similar enough layout, which meant that they would need to head towards the rear of the ship.

As the group passed through a hallway, red lights flashed and an alarm blared. A thick door slammed shut behind them, and loud footsteps were heard stomping their way towards the group's position.

"Thought this was getting too easy" Hallis said.

The group rushed for what little cover they could get. As soon as they did, Mass Accelerator pellets started flying through the air, followed by the sharp cracks of the weapons that spat them out. Anderson found himself crouched behind a crate as the Batarians rained hell down on his position. He could feel the crate as it shook with every hit it took. He heard two bursts from a rifle fire from behind him and watched as the rounds landed way above their intended targets. Junius or Vetran had likely tried to shoot, but found the sights to be misaligned. They fixed it quickly as the next two bursts fired found their mark on a Batarian soldier.

The four Turians with rifles were suppressing the enemy long enough for Hallis to mount his LMG on the same crate Anderson had ducked under. The Turian operator then unleashed a barrage of bullets from his weapon and began shredding all those who would stay in the open. Those who were smart enough to take cover found themselves in suppressed and unable to fight back only going up when the LMG had stopped firing. In that short span of time, the boarding party had pushed forward and gained ground. The Turians found it easier to hit their enemies with their borrowed rifles as their foes aren't as far away, and did not require much compensation when aiming.

"Keep up the pressure! If their lines break we have a clear way to the bridge." Junius shouted out.

The Turian riflemen advanced again as Hallis unloaded his LMG a second time. Anderson and the rest followed suit and moved towards the enemy position. Pushing forward, the group gained much ground against the enemy, but their advancement was halted by a Batarian's own machinegun. The MG had set up it's position to overlook the corner that they would have to turn on to get to the bridge.

The entire team held up on the corner as the MG squad opened up on the corner, blocking their passage with hundreds of Mass Accelerator pellets.

"Damn it!" The Boss cursed. "Anybody have any bright ideas?"

"Speaking of bright ideas." Anderson said as he took a flashbang and a frag grenade.

The demolitions expert nodded for confirmation to the squad leader, and then moved to the front of the line. He primed both grenades, then threw them both towards the MG squad's position. The explosion silenced loud roaring of the machinegun. The Batarians had been stunned by the flash, and wasn't able to get away from the grenade quickly enough. Anderson peeked out, and after confirming that the machinegun was no operational he signaled the rest of the group and went to secure the hallway.

Passing the wreckage of the barricade that the MG and it's users had set up behind, the group's advance was blocked by a thick blast door. The door presumably lead to the ship's bridge.

"I don't have anything strong enough to blast through that thing." Anderson said after checking out the door. It was at the very least one meter thick, and made out of starship grade metal. These type of doors were new, none of the N-Class squads reported breach proof blast doors of any kind. The Batarians, despite their arrogant and sometimes foolish ways, did learn from their previous mistakes. Or at least some of them.

Vetran moved to the blast door and inspected the panel beside it.

"The door may be unbreachable, but the electronics on this thing is still at least a decade old. Give me a couple of minutes and I should be able to slice through this thing."

The rest of the group acknowledged, and took positions on either side of it. Anderson and the Boss prepared smoke grenades as soon as Vetran motioned to them that the door was nearly open. As the door hissed open, both N7 operators threw their smokes in as a torrent of mass accelerator pellets slammed into their cover. Saren seized the initiative and created a biotic barrier, creating cover for his allies to move behind as he pushed ahead.

The biotic could feel the individual impacts and ripples on the barrier, each hit slowly draining his strength. Before would inevitably loose his consciousness from exhaustion, he began to move faster, until he and the rest of the group reached solid cover.

As they all ducked behind cover, Hallis prepared his LMG. When the shooting had begun to die down, he popped up and started returning fire to the Batarian defenders. Anderson rolled out of cover and flanked the enemy. Without anything protecting them from Anderson's hail of lead, they began to panic. The rest of the N7/Blackwatch team took the initiative and attacked the Batarians as the enemy's left flank began to collapse. As the firefight went on, gunfire from both sides began to slowly trickle down, up until the point where what little fight there was on the bridge was sporadic at best.

The last Batarian marine fell with a crash from Kesarus' shotgun, the defender's corpse falling to the floor with a large chunk of his face missing. The Turian explosives expert racked his gun whilst he admired his work, whistling as he did. The bridge had become silent with the only sounds heard in the room come from the boarding party and the machinery inside it. Everything was quiet, until Kalidon broke the eerie silence.

"So, any of you know how the hell any of this works?"

-000-

 **I knew it would happen. I tried to fight it, but I failed. I am sorry that it took almost 4 months to update this story. Between needing to register to the government for the elections, getting my citizenship ID, end of school exams, my ISP being cut off by an asshat neighbor, changing ISPs, turning out to have the new ISP block (though my phone can open it for whatever reason), and my friends inviting me to play video games with them almost everyday on my summer break, it's been a very interesting few months.**

 **I will make this clear to those who have doubts that I am not giving up on this story. Updates may become sporadic, or few and far in between, but always know that this story will not be ending untill I feel it reaches a conclusion to it's overarching plot. I will be attempting to put up some kind of bi-weekly writing/update. While chapters will still come out as soon as I deem it is in a good enough shape to be posted, unless some kind of major catastrophe happens to me, updates will never be more than 2 weeks apart.**

 **Thank you for reading this and for being so patient. Once again I am sorry that it has taken it so long to bring this up. Write down your thoughts on a review or PM them to me if you feel like it, and I hope you enjoy the rest of your day**


	10. Victory over Eden Prime

_**HSC Pillar's Glory, Above Eden Prime, June 15, 2192 AD, 04:22 PM Local Time**_

"Sir, our troops have already rounded up what slaves they can, but we have only barely passed the halfway mark for the quota. I would prefer if we held off leaving for another half-cycle."

Dorik wasn't exactly thrilled about it either, but they running on borrowed time. There was a Mass Relay on the other side of the system, and one of the Human ships had sent a message that his ship had intercepted. He _knew_ that the Human reinforcements would arrive from that Relay, and he wasn't willing to wait for them to arrive. No, while in technicality, they had almost filled up their quota, that was only because the rest of the fleet had been counted along with his group. He didn't intend on staying around when the Humans arrived in full strength. The defensive flotilla that the enemy had protecting the planet had made the decision to preserve themselves and fled when it had become obvious that they cannot hold the planet in their current state.

A decision Dorik had concluded to be a wise one, which is why he would be following suit soon.

"I understand Z'roan, but I don't trust Dov'tok to properly command the fleet anymore. Our collective strength is down to just above a third of our original numbers. We can't survive another attack from these Humans."

Unlike many officers in the Hegemony's armed forces, Dorik respected most of his subordinate's opinions. Unlike Dov'tok, who was a straightforward glory seeker, Dorik was more calculative. While his peers often criticize this trait and call it cowardice, he preferred to let his service record speak for itself. Among the Navy's officers, he had the lowest casualty counts and a higher success average than those of his rank.

"Yes sir, but I'm not sure the Chairmen would be too pleased with our results." Z'roan replied.

"They will take what they can. This secret war of ours is costly, they can't afford to execute us whilst in the middle of it." Dorik had said, his words were final on this matter. "Send the order to what's left of _our_ ground forces on the planet, I want them to have boarded our ships before the Humans arrive. We cannot afford to lose more soldiers in this blunder."

Z'roan gave him a nod and went off to make sure the order was done, leaving Dorik alone in the front of the bridge.

Left to himself, the Batarian commander continued to formulate and strategize. He would have to use the ensuing chaos caused by the Human fleet to take his 15 ships and make run for the relay they came from. Dov'tok was having the rest of the fleet form up defensive positions over the planet. The idiot had still believed that he could hold the planet, thinking that if he defeated the retaliatory fleet the Humans would simply run away and never come for the system again. A foolish endeavor, but the plan that Dov'tok and his staff could work, if they had more ships.

Dorik found himself looking to the side of the system where the other relay was. As he looked at its direction he saw small flashes. Flashes that would have been otherwise indiscernible from the stars in the background. Dorik new better than that though. Everything seemed to have slowed down, the air became tense and he felt a shiver run through his spine.

"We've ran out of time"

 **-000-**

 _ **At the edge of the system…**_

The idle mass relay that stood at the edge of the system began flaring. A streak of blue moving faster than the eye could see seemingly flashed into existence by its side. The light had gone as quickly as it had come, leaving behind it a wedge-shaped space ship. This repeated again, and then again, and kept repeating itself. Two flashes, three flashes, five, eight, twelve. This kept going and going for the next minute when it had finally come to a stop. As the last flash disappeared, leaving behind it a little over 120 of these wedge-shaped ships, they moved into battle formations in anticipation of the coming battle. Colored in a majestic silver and blue, the ships soared through the empty space with a vengeance. Vengeance for those who died in Eden Prime, vengeance for those who died in Shanxi, vengeance for all those who died in this bloody unprovoked war that stretches among the stars.

At the heart of the fleet was the _SSV Jerusalem_. A second generation Spacecraft Carrier. Barely over a year old, but already holding an impressive record. And commanding this majestic ship? The notorious Admiral Kastanie Drescher. Infamous for her 'no survivors' policy when dealing with the enemy, the Drescher was put in charge of the 9th fleet after the humiliating defeat during Operation Chain breaker where it's the previous leader, Admiral Rosenberg had died during the attack. Elements of the former 2nd fleet were reformed into the 9th and refitted with the latest weapons and technology.

Hangars on both sides of the _Jerusalem_ opened its blast doors releasing dozens upon dozens of Python fighter crafts, zooming towards their intended enemies. Though not as agile as their Batarian counterparts, the Pythons moved much faster than them, zooming through the void at over speeds of Mach 8, the fighters moved into formation in front of the fleet, becoming its spearhead. Behind the fighter formations came the wing shaped XB-92 'Phantom' ODC Bombers. The Ordinance Deployment Crafts, which as its name suggests, would deploy its ordinance of anti-ship torpedoes against the invader's ships. As the fighters and bombers began to engage the invading fleet, personnel in the _Jerusalem's_ *AWACS center hurried about their jobs, as they sorted through the information being received and relayed between the engaging crafts and the rest of the fleet.

The Admiral moved through the AWACS center quietly, careful not to run into any of ACI personnel working through the organized chaos. She stepped towards the holo-table in the middle of it all and took stock of the battlefield.

"Alistair, report."

"Communications with Eden Prime has been reestablished, General Volter reports that majority of the Alien forces planetside has been recalled. Hackett and his new best friends are still en route from off system, ETA one hour and a half. The Alien fleet is currently in a defensive position, protecting the transport ships." The intelligence officer reported. "Though because of the nature of the attack, those transports are likely to be filled with our guys."

"That scratches off a blitz attack." Drescher said, gritting her teeth. "Deploy the second wave."

Her brutal tactics generally came from a full-on attack using overwhelming firepower and speed. She would not be able to utilize such tactics at the moment, depriving her of a fast route to victory. Instead, she and her fleet would have to rely on the naval fighters and bombers to hammer out the enemies before moving the frigates and destroyer to disable or corral the remaining transports.

"Second wave deployed."

"Excellent. Have the first wave bombers return to rearm immediately once they've expended all their payload. No sense in keeping them in the fight too long."

A couple red blips, the ones that mark the enemy ships, began to disappear. The swarm of blue blips that mark friendly fighters bombers began was seen to dominate the field, throwing attack after attack against the Alien position.

"Move Destroyers and Frigates into optimum firing range. Have the Cruisers provide long-range support." The Admiral ordered. The Destroyer and Frigate packs would support the attacking fighters and bombers, who in of itself wasn't dealing as much damage as she preferred. The Cruisers would, in turn, support the smaller ships as the space battle equivalent of a designated marksman, forcing the Alien ships to choose between getting pummeled up close, or be shredded from far effects of the maneuver was apparent as soon the Frigates and Destroyers began firing. The Alien's defensive positions had begun to buckle under pressure. One of the Batarian ships had broken apart from the fire.

The effects of the maneuver were apparent as soon the Frigates and Destroyers began firing. The Alien's defensive positions had begun to buckle under pressure. One of the Batarian ships had broken apart from the fire.

She enjoyed watching it happen. Enjoyed watching as hundreds if not thousands of Alien were killed from a salvo of shots from a cruiser. Enjoyed watching the worthless scum die above Eden Prime. Soon over Shanxi, and then wherever these four-eyed fucks called home.

And when they did find whatever shithole the slaver bastards had crawled out of, she would have her revenge.

 **-000-**

 _ **HSC Shadow of Bahak**_

"Ropha, order Captain Har'varash and his ships to reinforce the front!" Dov'tok barked. The line was falling and the ship's main guns are hardly useful against fighters, add to that the Human ships forcing them to divide their defenses, then you have a recipe that will leave the Hegemony ships as wreckages by the time the battle was over.

"Admiral, he's not responding." The officer replied

This shocked the Admiral. The Captain and his ships had not been hit by a single attack, it was impossible for them to be out of communications. The Captain was not responding intentionally.

"What? Contact him again!" Dov'tok all but shouted.

It took several moments before the officer spoke again.

"Still no response, sir."

"That imbecile! Call them again, this time use priority code 'Charvak'."

This time Dov'tok only had to wait several seconds before a screen opened with the rogue captain's face on it.

"Captain Har'varash, I expect an explanation on why you denied opening a communications channel with my ship." Dov'tok said, staring daggers straight into the captain in question. "I do not take kindly to rebellious individuals."

" _It is simple Admiral, I am ensuring the success of the mission."_

"How are rogue actions ensuring the mission's success? I should have you thrown into the pit!" Dov'tok threatened the captain.

" _That's where you're wrong, Admiral. As I recall, my ships have more than half of our combined quota. The moment you make a move against me, I'll have the captives thrown out of the airlock."_ The Captain said with a sneer.

"You wouldn't." Dov'tok glowered

" _Wouldn't I?"_ The Captain said before he laughed. _"If I fall, you fall."_

The video feed was then promptly cut off.

"It seems that they've disabled the communications override, sir." The communications officer said.

Looking over the tactical display, Dov'tok saw that the ships under the captain's command began to break away from formation, and turning towards the Relay that they came from.

The ship shook as a volley from a Human cruiser slammed into its side. Klaxons blared around the bridge as a technical officer reported.

"Right side hull is breached! Drive core is at 56% power, main battery is disabled. We can't fight on like this!"

Most of the other bridge crew had already resigned their fates. Much more had already given up on any hope of victory. A deathly silence had descended upon the bridge, broken only by the occasional screech of the klaxon.

As the _Pillar's Glory_ and its followers jumped to light-speed and fled from battle. They flew towards the Mass Relay that they had come from, fleeing the system and returning to that which they came.

Seeing this happen and growling in anger, Dov'tok lashed out in a fit of rage.

"I Curse you Dorik! I curse a thousand curses upon you and your name! We will meet again, in another world, in another lifetime!"

As he finished, another volley slammed into the ship, another, and then another. One such shot pierced the ship's drive core and detonated. The explosion tore the ship in half, killing all of its crew.

As the explosion died down, leaving the _Shadow of Bahak_ as pieces wreckages and scrap. Its allies soon followed suit. One by one they fell to the Human ships and their relentless assault against them.

The Humans had secured the system. Hegemony ground forces left on the planet was hunted down with extreme prejudice. Not a single Batarian was spared.

The Battle of Eden Prime was over.

But The Great War had yet to see its end

 **-000-**

 **A/N**

 **So that _finally_ wraps up the first arc, which is technically the introduction/prologue/kick-starter of this whole story... thing.**

 **I don't want to go _straight_ into the diplomatic introductions, plans to retake Shanxi, instead, I want to bring around the council POV, and how this new council works as opposed to the regular one. I will also be taking some uh... _creative liberties_ with some of the existing characters, Wrex, Matriarch Aethyta, Sparatus, and Balak to name a few.**

 **Between the onslaught of ideas that I somehow come up with every night before I sleep, I'm thinking of starting a side-story thing which would be where all the ideas that I can't fit into _this_ story specifically.**

 **Thanks for reading and being patient throughout the first 10 chapters. The next chapter should be up in a few weeks, write down your thoughts in a review or PM me if you feel like doing either of them.**

 **Enjoy the rest of the day and remember...**

 **The Great War isn't over yet.**


	11. Intermezzo

_**Citadel Tower, The Citadel, June 18, 2192 AD, 09:22 AM Local Time**_

"Our losses have been staggering, the Tor Offensive has turned the war into a meat-grinder for our forces. All occupied territories has reverted back to its status after the first Turian offensive operation."

The Council's weekly war briefing was valuable insight to the war effort for the councilors. It was from there that they can make critical decisions or directly intervene.

Councilor Toraph of the Salarian Union was as shocked as all his co-councilors. The Joint Council Fleet was supposed to be the most powerful collective fighting force in the galaxy. The fact that they were being pushed back by technologically and numerically inferior foe was appalling to him.

At the moment, the representative from the JCF, one Matriarch Jaiga T'maris, was giving the report of the latest Turian offensive.

Honestly though, they were all caught off guard. They had been pushing the Turians back, albeit slowly, for the last half of the war, retaking several occupied colonies and breaching their borders. Neither the JCF nor the Council realized that the Turians had been holding back the bulk of their troops, and had been taking their time to equip them with the latest weapons and technology. All this was kept hidden by multiple false flag operations, bulking up strength in 13 different relay systems, and moving impressively advanced stealth frigates on systems to perform reconnaissance and surgical strikes against critical points.

The JCF's Intelligence Department representative, a Salarian by the name Milos Batta, stepped up and took his turn to talk.

"We estimate the Turians have up to 27 new fleets fully operational with their latest technology. Multiple fleets have been spotted near Nevos and Targora Thoraga. Januis, Anhur, Sarabhai, and Ghabaul have all fallen under siege. At the rate that these attacks are going, we conclude at best that the Turians may occupy 13 new systems by the end of the year."

The Krogan councilor, former Fleet-Master Gatatog Yorgal, looked furious. No doubt the imposing Krogan was blaming Toraph's own people for their current predicament.

" _*Wheez*_ How did they manage to build 27 fleets without us noticing?"

Toraph couldn't read his face, but he was certain that the Volus Councilor was more than just _a little bit_ mad.

"While our stealth probes has managed to infiltrate their outer territories, security in their core territories has increased by tenfold. Breaking into their new communications system has been… challenging to say the least, but their new codes has been the real problem. The multiple false-flag operations mentioned before, one of them included feeding us three different ciphers, which would give us semi-coherent answers, turned out to give us the false information. The false info had led us to reinforce our earlier misconceptions that they didn't have the numbers to properly stage an offensive."

Toraph had listened carefully. The change of events had left the JCF in disarray. Morale had taken a nosedive and support for people calling for peace had risen by over 18 percent in all of Citadel territories, most of which was coming from the Asari territories.

What really worried him about this is that Tevos, the Asari Councilor, has extremely close ties to the leading matriarch of the peace movement, Matriarch Benezia. He detested the idea that Tevos could turn against her fellow councilors and start calling for peace openly. The gods themselves knew that she's been listening to them a lot more than she did before. If more Asari city states join the peace movement, they might cripple the Republics' war effort contribution.

"If the war keeps going in its current state, support against the war will no doubt rise." The aforementioned councilor said. "Has a plan been formulated to counter such an offensive?"

The Matriarch didn't seem to like being questioned by a younger Asari. Tevos may have been over 600 years old, but no respectable Matriarch would like being told around by a Matron. Matriarch Jaiga knew better than to insult the Councilor however, the Matron had deep connections to some of the most powerful city states in the Republics, and flipping her off would essentially be political suicide. Instead, she carried on with her duty, as a soldier does.

"We do have a plan actually…"

 **-000-**

 _ **Shuttle 47, En Route to SSV Jerusalem**_

After several days of tense waiting, the Humans has finally agreed to diplomatic talks. Their Admiral Drescher had given them extremely specific instructions on the how, when, and where to proceed on their upcoming 'diplomatic talks' as well as who to bring. As it is, the only ones allowed to board the Human ship is the Blackwatch squad that had assisted them on the planet, and whoever was representing the Hierarchy.

Quentius didn't like leaving his ship, he hated it in fact. Though perhaps the fact that he was boarding an alien ship that was likely to be loaded with hundreds of thousands of said aliens, with a compliment of heavy support, may have been a factor on why he was so hesitant to go.

"We're arriving shortly." The pilot said from his seat. "I hope the talks go well sir."

The shuttle entered the designated hanger and hovered its way into an empty spot with a yellow marker on it. As the craft landed, Quentius heard a soft thud that told him they had landed safely. The orange light that bathed the inside of the shuttle turned blue. Hissing noises came from the shuttle adjusted the air pressure inside the shuttle to match the one outside of it. The hatch opened and revealed at least a platoon's worth of Human marines waiting for them outside. The Commander found it rather disconcerting that the Humans would deem it necessary to deploy 50 or so soldiers just for the 7 of them.

" _How paranoid these people are!"_ he thought to himself. _"There are STG Bases with less security than this."_

A trio of humans, followed by half a dozen more Marines, came forward to the shuttle and greeted him. He recognized them as Captain Hackett and Admiral Drescher though the third one, a female, he had not met before.

"Welcome to the _Jerusalem_ Commander Trevanian. You are the first Alien to step foot in this ship peacefully, so let's keep it that way." The Admiral said. "You already know who I am, and who Captain Hackett is, but let me introduce you to Ambassador Goyle, she will be the ones leading the talks."

Goyle extended her hand, a gesture which Quentius recognized as a greeting from the first contact package. He took her hand and shook it firmly. After all, he didn't want to give off the impression that Turians are uncivilized.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Commander. Please, let us continue in a more suitable place." The Ambassador said as she led the group through the hanger and down a hallway to a sizeable room marked 'Conference Room'.

Before they entered however, she stopped and turned around.

"I'm afraid that you will have to leave your escorts outside. It is a matter of security, none of our Marines will be joining us either." The Ambassador said calmly. The Blackwatch squad didn't exactly respond to it, but those who understood Turian body languages would notice that they were now on high alert.

After a few moments of contemplation, Quentius turned to his fellow Turians and _reluctantly_ told them to wait outside. He, as well as the Admiral and Ambassador entered the room, leaving Hackett and the Marines outside with the Blackwatch squad.

 **-000-**

 _ **Torfan, Ek'Zaro System, June 24, 2192 AD, 12:11 PM Local Time.**_

"So Dov'tok is dead?" The Admiral said. Dorik returning with less than a third of the original force that was sent to Eden Prime was considered a great surprise, considering that the Hegemony was ready to send two more fleets to reinforce the position once a foothold had been secured. So it wasn't much of a surprise when Admiral Jor'kah brought him in for questioning.

"That is true sir, his ship was critically hit in the drive core. They we're already dead by the time we decided to retreat." Dorik answered. "As soon as the Admiral had died, I decided that holding on to the planet was not going to end well, and decided that a tactical withdrawal was the wisest course of action."

The Admiral let out a deep sigh and removed his hat. He rubbed his forehead as he tied to sooth the headache he had.

"Dov'tok might have been a Krayt-Head sometimes, but he was a good Batarian inside. Since our offensive has been broken, we will need some time to recoup our losses. The Chairmen are adamant in taking over that colony of theirs, but the fact that they had a fleet so close ready to attack means that the Humans are preparing for an offensive against us." Jor'kah explained. Dorik wasn't sure he liked the direction in which this conversation was going however.

"What does that have to do with me, sir?" Dorik asked.

"With the loss of Admiral Dorik, it will be up to myself lead the defense of the captured Human colony. _You_ will be transferred to _my_ command until decided otherwise." Jor'kah said matter-of-factly. "Is that understood?"

Dorik knew that wasn't a question, but more of a confirmation. It didn't look like he could wriggle his way out these situations anytime soon. Reluctantly he answered.

"Understood, sir."

 **-000-**

 _ **Elysium Shipyards, Vetus System, June 29, 09:18 AM Local Time.**_

" _So the plan is set?"_ The President asked through the holographic communicator.

The circle of Alliance admirals around the projector nodded to their elected leader, confirming to him that the long overdue counteroffensive, Operation Freedom Shanxi, was finally ready to proceed.

" _Good, that's good. Shanxi is among my greatest failures. To know that I could at the very least make up for it before ending my final term."_

Fleet Admiral Jon Grissom stood up straight facing the president and saluted.

"Don't worry about us President Harper, we'll have the planet back in Alliance hands before Terran Spring."

" _Good to know Fleet Admiral."_ The President said as he took a deep breath. _"Donald Harper, out."_

 **-000-**

 **A/N**

 **That pretty much wraps ups the mid-arc intermezzo. So expect the first part of '** _ **Freedom Shanxi'**_ **up sometime soon, hopefully before the end of the month. I actually got an interesting idea with Sokolov and the rest of Zoya flight, though they won't be back until Humanity meets the Council** _ **officially**_ **. X-ray Squadron will be coming back sometime later. Zaeed and the rest will also be back on the next arc.**

 **As always, thanks for reading and being patient. Write down your thoughts or suggestions in a review if you feel like it, or PM them to me.**

 **Thank you again for reading, and enjoy the rest of your day.**


	12. D-Day

**_SSV Sunlight Yellow, Utopia System, July 3, 2192._**

The Alliance's most powerful and advanced dreadnought zoomed towards the Mass Relay in full speed as it led the charge against the slaver scum. Sitting in the in the command seat was Admiral Kahoku, the most experienced admiral in the Alliance navy, second only to the legendary Jon Grissom himself. Rivals as they were, Kahoku was elated to hear that he would be leading the attack that would hopefully lead up to an offensive against the Batarian's core worlds.

The 4th fleet under Kahoku, composed of battle hardened sailors and ships from the now defunct Colonial Commonwealth, would engage the Batarians in a lightning strike as Drescher's own 9th would head up the rear and support the attack with the three spacecraft carriers now in their disposal. Alongside the _Sunlight Yellow_ , was its sister ship, the _Son of Man._ Together theycharged head first and began the final approach to the Relay. Energy lanced out from the Relay as it launched 397 ships in astronomical speeds.

Skip ahead a few hours later, the _Sunlight Yellow_ and her sister ship dropped out of relay transit at the edge of the Kuomintang System, and continued their advance towards the planet. Already the meat shields that the Batarians used were detected. This time however, the Alliance was prepared.

Kahoku simply smirked as he thought of how fucked the Batarians were.

"All missile cruisers, fire at will!" He ordered.

The missile cruisers are the Alliance's answer to the Batarians meat shield tactics and Kinetic Barriers, wrapped into one. These ships are without main cannons and instead utilize a terrifying amount of missile pods on its side. At this very moment, the cruisers fired an entire salvo which then redirected itself towards the alien warships. The missiles dodged and weaved through the field of meat shields that was standing in between the Alliance fleet and the Hegemony invaders.

The Batarian ships opened fire at the missiles with their GARDIAN lasers, but the sheer amount of them flying towards the invading ships meant that plenty of them managed to get through the laser grid and slammed directly into the ship's hull. Kinetic barriers didn't do much towards targets moving slower than the average Mass Driver slug, meaning that torpedoes, missiles, and the occasional suicide bomber could damage these targets with extreme ease.

An officer from the internal communications section then called out to him.

"Sir, cyberwarfare division reports that they have figured out a way to cripple the enemy defenses!"

"Cripple the enemy defenses?" Kahoku asked as he looked at the officer intently.

"Yes sir, it seems that the meat shields are being remotely controlled by the Alien shipyard way behind their fleet. Cyberwarfare says that if we can cripple it, we can take the meat shields out of the fighting entirely."

This revelation was a great turn of events for the Alliance forces. Kahoku estimated that the fighting could be cut down from four, to one and a half hours.

"Excellent news sailor, tell cyberwarfare that the next drinks the buy are being paid for by me!"

Kahoku knew that things like these did wonders for morale. He encouraged his sailors to exceed performance by giving them good incentives. In this case, booze. The admiral took the communicator that was attached to his command seat and called out to the rest of the fleet.

"This is Admiral Kahoku to the 4th fleet, the Alien shipyard is now designated as a priority 1 target. You are all advised to destroy it with extreme prejudice."

Soon as the message was sent, six of the missile cruisers fired full salvos at the shipyard. Although most of the missiles were cut down by nearby ships and the shipyard's own GARDIAN lasers, four of them managed to get through and slam into the body of the station. The meat shields began to move in less organized manners. Another salvo from the six ships fired again and this time it was met with a much better result. As the Batarian ships fell one by one, a clear corridor between the shipyard and the _Sunlight Yellow_ became available.

"Helmsman, line the ship up towards the station. Gunnery Chief, I want that thing gone yesterday!"

Replies of acknowledgement were heard as the mentioned crew did as they were ordered.

"Load HE shells!" the Chief ordered.

The helmsman lined up the ship so that the main gun could get a clear shot at the station. Soon as targeting calculations were done. The secondary Gunnery officer reported to the Chief.

"HE shells loaded!"

"FIRE AT WILL!" the Chief then ordered.

Inside the firing chamber near the rear of the ship a hollow tungsten carbide shell the size of a bus, filled to the brim with explosives, is loaded into the 1.1 kilometer long Mass Driver rails. As the gun operators received the order to fire, they activate the rails into full power which launched the projectile at _sixteen million_ kilometers per hour. The shell slammed into the station almost immediately.

The shipyard bucked under the force and threatened to shatter. It was a testament to Batarian engineering that it didn't. The timed fuse inside the shell had something else to say entirely however, as a second after the station was hit, it detonated the explosives, blowing up with the power of a small nuclear bomb.

The shipyard was shattered into pieces, and its remains fell into the planet as it burned up in the atmosphere. The meat shields stopped moving entirely.

This allowed the _Jerusalem_ and her fellow carriers to dispatch the tug ships that would tow the hostage holding crafts into their respective carriers.

The 4th fleet began cleaning up the remaining Batarian ships. What little of them that surrendered was boarded by Alliance Marines, their occupants arrested, and later tried for crimes against humanity in Terra Nova.

The fleets began organizing itself into positions outlined to begin the liberation of Shanxi. The 4th and a majority of the 9th's combat ships moved to form a blockade to hold off against whatever forces the aliens would throw at them. Meanwhile the rest of the ships that weren't assigned to the blockade performed support duty for the ground attack. Frigates and Corvettes equipped with began scanning the surface and occasionally performed airstrikes.

One of the carriers, the _Libertalia_ , took in all the rescued people from the meat shield ships and took them back into Alliance space where they would be offloaded and taken care of, before the ship returned with more ground forces.

Above the skies of Shanxi, the _Jerusalem_ and the _Defiance_ deployed hundreds of landing crafts filled with Marines and Airborne units. This was the largest collection of landing crafts deployed by any human fleet in all of history. Not even the historic invasion of Kyushu by the United States, or the siege of New Canaan by the Sol Union could match the amount of manpower as well as firepower being deployed.

The Marines and Airborne units would have to establish a secure beachhead for the Army and the Aircorps within two weeks so that the bulk of the Alliance forces could be deployed.

 **-000-**

 ** _SSV Defiance, A few days earlier._**

"Attention!" the executive officer announced to the Marines sitting around their tanks. Immediately, they stood up and lined up as fast as they could.

General Volter looked through all the men. He was proud of them, each and every one. But at the moment he was only interested in one of them.

"As you were." The General said, his German accent cutting through the room. As the Marines began to return to their leisurely positions, the general halted the company's CO. "Except you Williams, you come with me."

The General took the Captain for a brief walk around the staging hanger as he conversed with the soldier.

"Tell me, how is Gertrude these days?" The General asked sharply.

This took the captain by surprise.

"She's doing fine, sir. Though I'm sure that you wouldn't just call me here to ask how your daughter is faring at the moment." Williams said. Try as he might to cover the bitterness in his voice, anyone who has known him well enough would know what he was feeling through at the moment.

"Please Danny, call me Heinrich, I only want to be called 'sir' while we're on duty. As of right now, I am speaking to you as your in-law." Volter reprimanded the younger officer. "And yes, I actually wanted to talk to you about your father. He was the General in charge in Shanxi was he not?"

Williams wasn't sure he liked where this was going, though he answered anyway.

"Yeah, he held onto Chiang Kai City up until we lost contact with him."

"That is quite true. Though there is no consensus at the moment, plenty of the politicians, mostly from the Terra Firma party, are looking to turn him into the scapegoat. Are you aware of this?" Volter said again as he leaned on the wall by the window.

"What? Those bastards, we don't even know if he's dead yet and they want to play the blame game!" Williams said angrily.

"Quite infuriating no?" Volter said. It was becoming evident to Danny that this conversation was going to lead up to something very important to the Williams family. "Old Max would be blamed for the loss of our 6th largest agriculture colony, and your family would likely get shafted in your military careers."

The simple thought of it was enough to make Danny's blood boil.

Volter observed at his son-in-law for a few moments, before continuing.

"What if we could prevent that however?" The general said.

"How so? Doesn't seem like we could do anything about it. Even if we retake the planet, dead or alive they're gonna turn dad into a pincushion for everyone to blame. Him and the rest of the family." Danny said as he clenched his fist.

"Well, that is likely to happen. Unless of course, we give them more incentive to love you than to hate."

"What? How are we going to do that?"

"By making you into the hero." The general then stated matter-of-factly. "I've already made up my mind about it, so there's really no point in arguing. You and your company will spearhead the landing force. In the eyes of the public, you'd be a hero." Volter then explained

"Spearhead the force, _me_? Heinrich, I know you care about us, and that you are trying to help, but are you sure that's the wisest decision? I'm not even sure I can pull it off!" Danny exclaimed, shocked.

"Nonsense, your company's record is among the best in all the divisions under my command. You will do more than fine."

"Isn't this nepotism though?" Danny then asked.

"Perhaps it is, perhaps it isn't. We shall find out when the fighting is over, and I can bring the rest of the corps down."

With that, the General left a still shocked Daniel Williams to contemplate on his new found responsibility.

 **-000-**

 **A/N**

 **Fast updates!** ** _~confetti pops~_** **I finally found it inside me to finish up a chapter quickly.**

 **That's the Battle above Shanxi done with. I honestly wanted to make the fighting a lot longer, but I can't seem to figure out how to do it. At the end I just beefed up the chapter with some introductions.**

 **Next chapter is the Marine Corps landing at Xianjin coastline and the Airborne Infantry fighting behind enemy lines.**

 **Thanks for reading, write what you think in a review or PM them to me if you feel like doing either, and enjoy the rest of your day.**


	13. First in the Line of Fire

_**Landing Craft 6-6, Tiananmen Coastline, Shanxi, July 4, 2192, 19:44 Local Time.**_

"Thirty seconds! God be with you!" the landing craft pilot said through the sounds of AA fire and small arms fire zipping and cracking through the sky. Williams and his tank crew prepared to deploy.

The craft landed on the sandy coast with a muffled thud and the latches holding the tank opened with a clang.

"Step on it Whitman!" Williams ordered the driver.

The Mattis class Main Battle Tank roared to life and leapt drove away from the craft as it flew away. The twin 50. Caliber machineguns tore the enemy infantry like they were paper and sent those who got away into cover, allowing the Alliance Marines on foot to advance. The gunner, Jackson, kept the MGs pounding continuously. She wouldn't give the enemy a chance to fight back.

The rapid thundering of anti-air cannons brought Williams' attention back to their primary objectives.

"Whitman, get us to that AA bunker! Jackson, I want our guns pointed at them!"

"Roger that boss." The gunner said as she turned the turret to face the bunker.

Williams peeked through the spotter's periscope and saw how imposing the target truly was. It was the size of a small house and it had firing emplacements and gun holes covering all angles. Williams and the tank platoon currently with him pushed towards the bunker, five tanks strong.

The group pushed and provided cover for squad that was also advancing. This advance was then halted when the left most tank struck by an AT rocket in the side, crippling one of its tracks. Williams cursed and took the radio in the tank.

"Vickers, Tomasino, you push on ahead with the infantry, we need to give Jareau cover while his tank's being repaired.

" _Aye, on it Cap'n."_ Vickers answered as her modified King David class Light Assault Tank charged forward with Tomasino's basic King David class following closely behind.

"Jareau, Rodriguez, provide suppressing fire for the infantry, try to stop that rocket shooting fuck from hitting another one of us!" Williams then ordered into the radio again. The two other Mattis class tanks had their twin MGs pounding on the bunkers emplacements as soon as they could.

Williams hung the radio to the side again and peered through the periscope. The twin MGs on his own tank then began to pound on the bunker too, as it attempted to suppress enemy retaliation. Vickers' Irish accent cut through the staccato of machinegun fire as she called through the radio.

" _Cap'n, some of 'em grunts found 'e door in the rear of the bunker. I'm gonna push with 'em."_

"Copy that Vickers, proceed with caution." The Captain replied

The two King David tanks pushed up a steep hill with a squad of Marine grunts hiking behind them. Vickers' tank reached the top first and launched a stream of fire from its flamethrower.

Following the suppression from the two tank's combined fire, the Marines pushed through and lobbed several of grenades at the cowering Batarians. Unfortunately, one of such grenades was thrown back by a quick-thinking Batarian and had it land in the middle of a trio of Marines. The explosion tore the Marines apart, killing all of them.

Tomasino's tank pushed forward and fired its main gun at a gun emplacement, killing its operators. A lone Batarian soldier jumped out of cover and shot an attacked with his rocket launcher before the light tank could reposition itself. The rocket struck the tank's main gun and destroyed the rails in which the turret rotated on. Being crippled, the tank swerved wildly and crashed into a wall with a loud crash. The Batarian launched another AT rocket which slammed into the side of the tank and hit it in a relatively unprotected side. The explosion rocked the tank, and knocked out most of the crew, if not killing them outright.

Inside her tank, Vickers cursed.

"Fuckin' hell, Tomasino's tank took a rocket to the face!"

Ordering the driver to push on ahead, she turned her turret and held onto the trigger, blasting fire and lead at the Batarian which was using the rocket launcher. The quad machineguns endlessly hammering with .50 caliber bullets which tore apart everything near his position.

A marine squad breached the bunker doors and stormed inside. Gunshots cracked through the sound of battle and muzzle flashes shone through the gun slits. The gun emplacements firing away from the bunker one by one began to fall silent. All 12 remaining heavy machineguns stopped their staccato of fire against the Alliance marines as their gunners were killed. This all reached its climax when the AA batteries at the top of the fortification exploded in a shower of fire and sparks.

Williams took the radio again and reported to the _Defiance_.

" _Defiance_ , this is Spectre-1. Objective foxtrot has been secured, requesting reinforcements and medivac at our position now."

" _Copy that Spectre-1. We have Mammoths en route with reinforcements now. Sit tight and dig in, ETA is 20 minutes."_ The ACI operative in the _Defiance's_ AWACS room said through the radio.

The Captain switched frequencies on the radio and addressed all troops within the area.

"To all forces in this area, dig in around the bunker, we're getting reinforced with more troops, ETA 20 minutes."

The tanks formed a perimeter around the bunker as the grunts took cover and treated their wounded.

Williams climbed out of his tank through the hatch and walked over to the Tomasino's tank. There was a hole on its side where the rocket had impacted it, and another on the turret which had crippled it. Some dried blood was visibly sticking on the impact hole, which caused The Captain to look away slightly.

The top hatch opened as the tank's gunner, bloodied and wounded as he was, climbed out and dragged a body out. The body being dragged out was missing an arm and half of its face, as well as it was severely burnt. The gunner removed the hat and goggles from the body, revealing the body to be the tank's commander.

"Dammit." Williams said.

"He died the when the first rocket hit us, sir. Gone in a flash, just like that." The gunner said.

Another one of the crew climbed out of the hatch, this one seemed to be the driver. He visibly scarred in the face and was bleeding heavily from his right arm. The gunner helped his crewmate down.

"Thanks mate." The scarred crewman said as he wiped the dirt and soot that had stuck on his face from the explosion.

The gunner let his friend rest and went to talk to the captain.

"I suppose we'll be taken out of the active combat." The gunner said. "Seeing as how most of the crew is either injured or dead."

"It's possible." Williams said as he knelt down and closed the dead commander's eyes. "Though with things as it is right now, the brass is probably going to throw you a new crew as soon as you boys recover. Hell, you might even get your own crew to boss around."

Williams stood back up and took a good look at the gunner. He looked rather young, though he was well built. He had some stubble growing on his face unevenly.

' _The guy couldn't have been over 25'_ Williams thought to himself.

The gunner looked excited at the prospect of getting his own crew. Williams couldn't tell exactly what to think of the soldier in front of him.

"Unfortunate that such a promotion had to happen their demise." The gunner said. As he wiped the dirt off of the dead men and closed their eyes. "They were good soldiers, both of them."

Williams nodded and took a seat on a nearby rock. Rummaged through his sling bag in search of his vice, and pulled out a box of cigarettes.

"Gertrude would kill me if she found out I've been smoking again." He said to himself, though he lit the roll of tobacco on anyways.

It wasn't until a group of Mammoth crafts began their approach and landed, opening their doors and letting out more tanks and marines that he stood up and extinguished his cigarette. He climbed back onto his tank, where his crew had been waiting. Before he got in, he turned around and look for the wounded gunner, who was now being treated by a medic.

"Say, kid, I never did catch your name." Williams said loudly called out.

The gunner looked up and replied.

"It's Petrovsky, sir. Oleg Petrovsky."

 **-000-**

 _ **Qian Forrest, Shanxi, A few hours earlier.**_

"Take cover you shitheads!" Zaeed shouted through the sound of gunfire and explosions. He tackled a pair of soldiers to the ground as a hail of gunfire ripped through the air where they had been standing. The three of them crawled back into cover behind a large rock as the several Batarian soldiers focused their fire against the trio.

"Where the fuck is our armor support?" Zaeed shouted at his communicator.

" _We're still 8 minutes out, we got stuck in some mud."_ One of the IFV commander said.

Zaeed cursed under his breath, his boys were getting hammered, and he didn't have enough firepower to make a counterattack. He hated the fact that the Goliath transport that he was in had to be the one that got shot down instead of the dozens others in the air. Air dropping entire armored vehicles is also a huge pain in the ass. Times like these he wondered if things would be a lot simple if he joined the Marine Corps instead of the Airborne Infantry.

It probably wouldn't make much of a difference though.

"Vosque, where's your fucking RPG?" Zaeed demanded. He didn't have time to deal with any bullshit at the moment.

"Right here boss!" the soldier in question replied as he ran to him. Vosque took cover behind a tree close to the sergeant, and aimed his launcher. He fired, and the RPG launched itself with tremendous speed, screaming through the air right until it slammed into the side of a tree which was standing near a group of Batarians. The explosion destroyed the tree's base, as well as the aliens near it. The explosion was enough to begin slowing down the enemy's momentum, though not by a lot. A dozen more Batarian soldiers streamed through the dust and smoke that the explosion had kicked up as they stampeded past the corpses of their fallen brethren, sending the Alliance Paratroopers backpedaling yet again.

"Everybody, fall back to the second line!" Zaeed heard the company commander shout through the radio.

A hail of gunfire shot from the Batarian group as the paratroopers fell back to a second defensive line, where another platoon of paratroopers had already dug in. Zaeed did a running slide down into one of the hastily dug trenches. Vosque and Jedore ran up beside and took cover as well.

Things certainly were falling to shit real fast.

It was tough fighting in the dark forests of Shanxi, only having the lights on their HUDs and the fire from the crashed Goliath behind them illuminating the shadows. Muzzle flashes lit up the darkness as the Alliance forces opened fire once more on the advancing enemy. In the midst of all the chaos another rocket flew from somewhere within the crowd of Batarians. The HE rocket arced and hit the ground a few meters short of the trench. The fiery explosion illuminated the night as the grass and bushes around the explosion caught on fire.

Zaeed peeked out again and took potshots at the enemy. There didn't seem to be an end to their numbers. Every paratrooper capable of fighting was already throwing everything they've got at the Batarians, but every time they kill one, another two of the alien soldiers would appear and continue the fight.

It was almost frightening.

"C'mon you sons of bitches, is that all you've got?!" Zaeed taunted as he fired another burst from his assault rifle.

He was answered when another two dozen Batarian soldiers. Charged forward with menacing, orange blades appearing in most of their wrists.

"It's a blade charge, brace yourselves… AAGH!"

Zaeed looked to see the company commander get stabbed in the stomach by one of the Batarians. The attacking Batarian shoved his Omni-blade deep into the commander's stomach, before cutting through the side and spilling out his innards.

The second line broke as even more Batarians rushed forward. Though the paratroopers had better training and, to a certain extent, better gear, they simply could not hold against the overwhelming numbers of the Batarians.

"This trench is fucked, fall back to the third line!" Zaeed shouted as he tried to rally what little soldiers were left on the blood-soaked trench.

As he pulled an injured soldier, who while being dragged, fired back against the Batarians with his own assault rifle Zaeed took a split second to look around him.

People were dying left and right. Batarians with chunks of their body missing, paratroopers being rushed by the aliens, and he even spotted one being ganged up by a bunch of Batarians who were repeatedly stabbing him with their Omni-blades.

They were running out of time, and they were running out of it fast. He picked up the soldier and picked up the pace towards the trench.

At the moment, nothing mattered to him except for their survival.

Zaeed finally reached the third line. Though it too was a hastily dug trench, it was at the very least more properly set up. Metal panels from the broken Goliath was propped up as small shelters on key points in the trench as to make pseudo-bunkers. Zaeed dropped the soldier onto the trench. Throughout the entire ordeal Zaeed didn't even take a single glimpse at the man he was dragging. He was about to ask the soldier if he was ok, only to realize that said soldier was already dead. There was a hole in his face the size of a golf ball, and the hole carved straight through the head.

"God damn." He said letting go of the corpse.

Zaeed shook his head and took the dead soldier's rifle. He popped up again and opened fire at the Batarians. He held on the trigger and swept the rifle across as to try and hit as many aliens as possible. The rifle kept spitting bullets up until its magazine ran out, after which Zaeed grabbed the rifle by its stock and hurled it at the enemy. He took out his side arm before starting to pick off the enemy one by one.

The sergeant ducked down as he reloaded his pistol. He grabbed his communicator and shouted at it.

"Where the fuck are you shitheads!" Zaeed all but shouted. Screw military ethics, they're going to need those APCs and IFVs if they even want to have the slimmest chance of surviving this battle.

The Batarians charged again with what he reckoned was over a hundred soldiers. Zaeed didn't bother counting, he just needed to survive.

Another barrage of HE rockets flew from the rushing aliens. The rockets exploded all over the place as the charging aliens collided again with the Human troops.

If the fighting had been brutal before, now it was a total blood bath. The third line was about to break. They were trapped between a burning wreck and hundreds of four-eyed slaver freaks charging at them with fanatic zeal, leaving them little to no choice but to fight back.

Zaeed drew his knife and rushed a Batarian while he was focused on another target. The sergeant stabbed him in the back of the throat and twisted the blade just to make sure he would die. Covered in orange blood, Zaeed took the alien's shotgun and began hammering away at the enemy. He kept firing, accenting each one with a war cry. Shot after shot he fired, until the gun began beeping, and a red hologram glowed on the side of its barrel. Before he could figure out what was going on with the gun, Zaeed heard a Batarian shouting something and swung around with his knife, ready to fight. He was greeted with the Batarian with his fist covered in the same orange-glowing matter that formed the Omni-blades, and was punched right in the face with it.

The force of the strike launched him several meters away where he hit a tree, and was promptly knocked out.

 **-000-**

 _ **Galactic News Update:**_

 **Citadel Central Broadcasting:** Latest update from the frontlines are in, with the steady advance of the JCF and the Volunteer Corps being halted and was pushed back as the Turian Hierarchy. Citadel affiliated casualties have risen from 13% of all deployed forces to a staggering 39%. Sources from within the Volunteer Corps has told CCB that the Turians have begun fielding newer weapons, and are, and I quote, "defending occupied territories as aggressively as they would when attacking." Support from the Asari Republics have been shaken as the war's popularity in the core territories have dropped by 9%, and in the frontiers by 29%. Another terrible blow is also dealt when Matriarch Benezia, leader of House T'soni and current head of the Armali Circle of Matriarchs, announced earlier today that both the states of Armali and Serrice will no longer be supporting the war effort.

 **Hierarchy Official News:** Military correspondents have reported that the Tor offensive, now entering its 2nd stage, has been a phenomenal success. While being a departure from standard Hierarchy doctrine, the newly dubbed "Elastic Combat Formations" have been proven to be very effective against the relatively disjointed Citadel Volunteer Corps. In a press release earlier this month, High Primarch Fedorian announced that the Tor offensive, if successful, would eventually force the council back into a stalemate at worst, or would force the Asari Republics to capitulate into diplomatic negotiations at best. Though some of the other Primarchs are still skeptical on the possibilities of the plan when it was announced last month, many of them are now praising the High Primarch plan.

 **Tuchanka Federal News:** In an act of uncooperativeness and cowardice, the Asari Republics has refused to contribute more of their economic and industrial capability to the war effort. This has left the 9th to 16th JCF fleets without the 13 dreadnoughts originally requested, as well as cutting down on projected fleet construction from 19 to 8. This development is not all bad however, as they have conceded 112 of their own frigates and cruisers. In better news, the Salarian Union has agreed to deploy 9 of their own fleets to pick up where the Asari Republics had refused to help with. The new Arakis shipyard over our glorious home world Tuchanka has also completed construction, which when fully functional, should be able to deploy 8 new frigates every month.

 **Colonial News Center:** President Harper's war economy plan has finally come full swing as the far more civilian factories than required has been retooled into military factories. Production of supplies and equipment is believed to have quadrupled in number. Fuel and food rationing is now also underway in the core systems as high-end restaurants and other 'unnecessary droughts of resources' are being temporarily closed, and the resources that they previously used being sent into the many bunkers and stockpiles all around Alliance space for the duration of the war. The President has promised to pay compensation for the 'necessary evil' and understands how damaging this is to businesses. Rumors of a new player in the war is also surfacing as unidentified warships were spotted during the Alien attack on Eden Prime. An elderly citizen claimed that well over a dozen warships that she did not recognize as neither Alliance nor Batarian while she was being transported from the Eden Prime near orbital. AFCom has refused to comment on this at the moment, saying that it was "A matter to discuss another time."

 **-000-**

 **A/N**

 **I kind of feel that CODEX entries are just, eh I don't know, off. I kept thinking on how I could still do some world building, but not make it like so blatant like that. Well technically it's still pretty blatant, but then again I'm not really sure how to describe it. Yeah, so CODEX entries will be replaced with either** _News Updates_ **or maybe** _Archive Updates_ **for things that have happened in the past.**

 **Anyways, this is the second chapter of the second arc (season?) which stars everyone's favorite merc Zaeed, and Ash's father (who if you still can't figure it out, is the guy the first section of this chapter is focused on). I realized when writing this chapter that I've been giving the Alliance too many wins, and I feel like they should be taking a whole lot more hell than they are. I originally wanted to have the APCs and IFVs arrive at the last second, but after a few revises, and accidentally making this chapter the most graphic in this story so far, I decided to make it like it is.**

 **Anyway folks, thanks for reading, as always. Put what you think in a review, or PM them to me if you feel like it. Thanks again, and enjoy the rest of your day.**


	14. Quiet Hours

_**Somewhere in the Terminus, July 12, 2192.**_

An unmarked freighter dropped out of FTL as it approached its destination. The planet that it was headed to, a mountainous planet with a mono-climate, was the perfect place to hide out, the ship's Pilot thought to himself. He didn't enjoy living underground –no Batarian worth their weight did- but he could appreciate the natural tunnel network that ran existed in each of the mountains. Given a different situation, he might find it interesting to see how extensive it went.

Now was not the time for such curiosities though, he had a job to do, and he was determined to do it quick. No point in lingering around when he could be off making money elsewhere soon as he was done.

The independent colony he was visiting was quite beautiful. There wasn't a lot of settlements in it, though its population was steadily rising. Salarians, Turians and Krogans trying to get away from being drafted into the military, as well as Volus refugees who escaped from the Turian occupation but want nothing to do with the Council anymore. These have been becoming a common sight around the Terminus, as the half-century war has somehow turned even bloodier,

There are mountain ranges as far as the eyes can see cutting through the continents, and cliffs rise right out of the planet's many seas as they lined the entire coastline.

Built on one of these ocean-side mountains, a beautiful -though foreboding- looking fortress, with intricate designs and decorations, sat on its side.

Lowering the craft, the ship's HUD lit up as a guideline towards his designated landing zone. The metal platform was surrounded by AA cannons and Anti-Ship missile launchers. The ship touched down, and the metal platform lowered itself deeper into the depths of the mountain.

The platform finally stopped lowering itself and brought itself closer to the cavern based hangar.

Blast doors covering the hangar opened, revealing two Salarians and well over a dozen Gun-Mechs.

The Pilot got up from his seat and pulled a lever which lowered the cockpit of the ship to ground level. He opened a hatch and exited the freighter.

"You're late." The Salarian wearing a lab coat said.

"It's not my fault, shipment was given to me late. If you've got complaints, send them to the navy." The Pilot said.

"The Navy? What happened!" The armored Salarian said.

"Apparently the Turians made contact with the Humans, and both managed to repel the spearhead of the latest invasion." The Pilot said. "Now they're counterattacking, and have launched an invasion of the colony we took."

The Salarian scientist paled for a moment, before shaking his head.

"Japh said we still had a year before they made contact, this pushes our timetable considerably! Contact our mutual friend, tell him that I will be needing the next shipment earlier." The scientist said, transferring the Pilot's payment via his omni-tool. The Pilot confirmed that the payment has been received, and lowered the ship's cargo hold, revealing several large crates.

A squadron of industrial Mechs moved in and took the crates away towards the part of the fortress/bunker that was marked 'Holding Room'.

The Pilot returned to his ship and activated the engines. As soon as the Mechs had finished unloading his cargo, he had his ship's VI signal the hangar VI to raise the platform again.

The armored Salarian walked over to the scientist, datapad in hand.

"So, you're actually requisitioning more people, at higher frequencies for your horrendous experiments?"

"The more subjects I can experiment with, the faster I can complete my research Kangl. You should know this, it's researching 101." The scientist replied flippantly.

"Have you no heart Saleon? These are people you're experimenting with! They have lives and family, are you really that cold that you wouldn't think of that?" Kangl practically shouted.

Saleon turned around to face the taller Salarian.

"The sooner I can complete my research; the sooner we can end this war Kangl. Without this, this galaxy is doomed to fight for another half century! That's another 12 generations of Salarians who will be dragged into the war. 12 Generations of Salarians who will be conscripted into the frontlines, to fight a war they might not even know the purpose of!" Saleon replied. "Learn your place in the grand scheme of things, Kangl. It doesn't matter how terrible the things I do are; the ends justify the means."

Saleon turned around and left Kangl in the hangar alone with the Mechs.

Kangl balled his fists, took a deep breath, then went off to his office. He didn't doubt that Saleon had already reported his objections. This wasn't the first rant he had after all. He needed to settle some things, no doubt the Dalatrass might dispose of him if she start's seeing him as a liability, just like his predecessor.

 **-000-**

 _ **FOB Berlin, Tiananmen Coastline, Shanxi, July 15, 2192, 06:00 Local Time.**_

"Sir, I must insist! Leading your men directly in the frontlines is extremely dangerous. The enemy will recognize your tank as a high-value target, and prioritize attacking you!" One of Volter's executives said.

The General put on his jacket, then strapped on his armored vest. He put on his cap, then his goggles on it.

"In 2067 my great-grandfather was among the men leading the charge into Federation territory. He rode in his own tank, with his own men, and faced his enemies as a general should. Why should I be any different?" He said to his executive. "The men will need morale, seeing the _Hunting_ _Tiger_ himself in the frontlines will no doubt do miracles for them."

"But…" The executive tried to reply but was cut off.

"No more, Jordan. I have already made up my mind." The General said exiting his tent.

Outside, soldiers and support units alike were hustling about, doing their work. Mechanics were performing maintenance, logistics officer making final checks on supplies that are being sent.

Headed towards the armor pool, the General could distinctly remember the Siege of Camelot. Fighting in his old Teutonic type tank, performing guerilla attacks against the Sol Union during the Brother's War. The most prominent memory he had, was ambushing 9 of the Union's superior Kingslayer tanks with only 2 other Crusader tanks with him. So great was such feat, that he and his crew received recognition from the Prime Minister of the Commonwealth directly.

Rounding a corner, he spotted his beast; an older, beat up Mattis class tank stood there, with its crew performing last minute checks. One of the crew members saw the General and walked over to him, before saluting.

"Ready to get back to the field Gunther?" the General asked.

"Locked, loaded, and ready to party, as the Yanks would say!" Gunther said. Having served with the General since the beginning of both their military careers, he had earned the right to talk so casually with the highly esteemed general.

"Eager as usual, eh?" The General said, chuckling a little. "Better introduce me to the new crew then."

Gunther leads the General to the tank, where the rest of the tank crew was waiting.

"Attention!" Gunther said loudly. "We have a new commander today. Would you all say hello to our guest of honor?"

The rest of the tank crew, which had been rather relaxed beforehand immediately straightened up and saluted the General.

The driver, a blonde named Ilsa, spoke up.

"Sir, we didn't know you were joining us on the front lines!" She said.

"I realize that it's a little bit sudden, but seeing how things might go, I think that it would be best if I came along. The troops could use some extra morale." The General said, inspecting his tank. "She's still in good shape, ja?"

"Yes sir!" the gunner, Frank, answered, "There's nothing that those four-eyed freaks have that can hold against her!"

The General had to suppress a smile which had been growing on his face. No doubt that his mere presence here had already done wonders for these soldiers.

Further inspecting the tank, Volter noticed several new scratches and dents that had not been there when he last commandeered the tank. The side panels on her were also entirely new, as well as the two exhaust pipes at the back. The twin 110mm cannons, a modification which had requisitioned back when he was a Colonel, still looked as imposing as when he first saw it. Though a whole 25mm smaller than the standard issue cannon that the Mattis class used, the stronger capacitors and rails which he personally installed would ensure that the gun fired at almost equivalent force. The fact that Batarian tanks were never designed for actual armored warfare, and instead designed mainly for infantry support helped immensely, as it would mean that they had armor that is more effective against infantry based anti-tank weapons, like anti-material rifles and RPGs, and less effective against a tank round.

The General inspected the side of the turret. A few new scratches were found again, and what seemed to be a patched hole in the tank. Beside said hole, was his beloved tanks own name, emblazoned in black and gold.

'The Furious Phantom'

He let that small smile he was suppressing form a little, even if only to be turned into a small scowl as he turned to Gunther.

"What happened here?" Volter asked as he pointed at the patched hole.

"Batarian RPG hit it. Damn thing pierced the armor, but thank god, didn't detonate." Gunther said.

"Well, we can't make any more mistakes like this. We are the best, of the best. I will not accept anything less than that. Am I understood?" The General announced as he climbed onto the top of the tank.

"Sir, yes sir!" They all answered together.

"Güt. Now, let's get going. We have got a war to win!"

 **-000-**

 _ **Galactic News Update:**_

 **Citadel Central Broadcasting:** Death tolls continue to rise as the Volunteer Corps continue to face increasing numbers of fights and prolonged battles against Turian forces. CCB War Correspondent Aleas Raeza reports that the Turians are using what volunteers are calling "literal moving fortresses". A galactic wide stalemate has occurred, and now citizens are beginning to question whether or not the war is even worth the effort.

 **Hierarchy Official News:** With the 2nd stage of the Tor offensive underway, brave soldiers of the Hierarchy has bogged down the Volunteer Corps and the newly deployed Krogan Legions in a bloody war of attrition. Mobile Fortresses have been deployed by the army in key strategic locations, which would force enemy forces to engage the Fortress if they hope to advance. High command states that the 2nd stage of the plan is to bleed enemy reinforcements dry, before advancing to the next target.

 **Colonial News Center:** The liberation of Shanxi is now at full swing as the Alliance Marine Corps have successfully captured 'beachheads' for deployment of the Alliance Army. Enemy resistance has been scattered at first, but the alien forces have regrouped before the Corps could push further. General Heinrich Volter has voiced displeasure, stating 'We might as well as formally tell them to get ready.' Reports of organized resistance around the planet has also been heard. Rumors of who these resistance fighters are organized by are already floating around, with General Henry Williams being the name heard the most.

 **Archive Update:**

 **Year: 2139**

 **The Brother's War:** Before the formation of the Systems Alliance, the Human race and its subjects are under the rule of the Sol Union. The Union was in essence, an evolution of the United Nations of Earth. The main problem with the Union was its increasingly centralized government system. Almost all decisions concerning the Union were made in the UN HQ in New York City. Frontier colonies found it hard to represent themselves in elections, as compared to their population of 4 billion, the Core Territories were already home to over 11 billion humans. Feeling left out, many frontier colonies attempted to secede but were most of the time suppressed by the Union's monopoly on military power. Political instability within the Union finally came to a head when a demonstration in Elysium went violent after Military Police fired tear gas into the crowd. The MP had expected for the crowd to disperse but instead found that the demonstrators had rallied, and used improvised weaponry against the MP. The domino effect of the demonstration led to the Elysium colonial government being overthrown by the end of the week. Elysium, now armed and equipped with military grade equipment, declared independence from the Union, which inspired other colonies to revolt against the Union too. What started as local civil unrest in 2139, turned out to be a civil war stretching almost half of Human space. The seceding colonies banded together to become the Free Colonial Commonwealth. Fighting between the two factions died down in 2158, where both sides settled down and licked their wounds for the next 9 years, up until political conflicts flared up again and the war started again in 2167. The war finally ended permanently in 2179, after a nuclear bomb was detonated in Lowell City, Mars, as well as New York City. The bomb killed hundreds of millions of people. The Union finally capitulated after Union citizens demanded that the war is ended. The Union government finally chose to surrender. After the war, the Commonwealth annexed all Union territory, and then reformed their own government, though mostly in name. The Systems Alliance is finally formally formed in 2180.

 **A/N**

 **No action this chapter, sorry if you were really looking forward to some. I just felt like I had to do flash out some things, and explain (or at least lead up to an explanation) of some things. We see a lot more of General Volter -see if anybody can guess who are his primary inspirations (though I wouldn't be surprised if anybody did)- and the backstory for this incarnation of the Systems Alliance.**

 **I also introduced a** _ **third**_ **party to the entire conflict. To be honest, I didn't plan for them to be there, but I figured it would be a great place to kickstart the overarching story.**

 **Write a review if you want to, or you could message them to me. As always, thanks for reading, and enjoy the rest of your day.**

 **PS:** Where **in the hell is** _Satellite Provider_ _ **?**_ **One guy from that location read up all chapters from this story. Curious is all.**


	15. Fields of Fire

_**Shaoji Countryside, Shanxi, July 15, 2192, 08:00 Local Time.**_

The 13th Marine Armored Division moved swiftly through the large, open farmlands which make up a majority of the Shaoji Countryside. The tanks plowed through wheat fields and tall grass, leaving trails of flattened plants in their wake. Accompanying them is the 26th Mechanized Infantry Division. APCs and IFVs move in the middle of their formation, while most of the tank make up the front. SPGs and SPAAs move in the rear of the formation with several IFVs and tanks escorting them, as to avoid a direct confrontation. At the spearhead of the entire formation is Williams' Spectre Company and General Volter's own personal tank platoon, the Wild Cats.

Passing through the countryside, the Marines and the Infantry division they had with them happened upon a deserted city. It was your average colony city, with a bunch of houses and buildings at the edges of it, with more important buildings in the center. From what he could see of it, the occupants had attempted to fight off the Batarian invaders, unsuccessfully at that. Getting closer to the village, the frequency of wrecked vehicles – both Human and Batarian- began to increase. Craters and scorch marks had begun to become more apparent as the remains of the battle were passed by the Alliance forces.

" _Jesus Christ,"_ Vickers said over the radio. _"These lads threw a real good fight, ain't it cap'n?"_

" _Real shit here boss."_ Rodrigues said over the radio too.

" _Cut the chatter, everybody stay focused!"_ Gunther ordered.

A squadron of Python fighters did a flyby over them. The fighters circled around while feeding information to the 13th and 26th Divisions.

" _This is Hurricane 5-1 to Wild Cat 1-1 actual. We see lots of heat signatures down there. Gotta be more than a thousand or so scattered around. Humanoid shapes, unconfirmed whether Human or alien."_ One of the fighter pilots said.

" _Copy that Hurricane 5-1, continue to provide recon and CAS when necessary. Spectre company will move in to secure the city's entrance, command of Comet company's fire support will be transferred to you, Williams."_ The General said.

With that, Spectre company, with Williams in the lead, surged forward towards the city, guns locked and loaded.

It didn't take long from that until gunfire started coming from city's ruins. Batarian machineguns and cannons fired away at the tanks. Small mass effect pellets ricocheted from the tank's thick hull and the cannons kicked up dust and dirt with every shot they fired. The dust being kicked up alerted the fighters to its location, and with one fell swoop, the fighters came in and blasted them apart with rockets.

By now, the tank crews are ready to return the favor. Machineguns and 135mm cannons fired back at the enemy positions, suppressing and tearing away at the enemy.

Williams used his periscope and sighted the enemies. He used the radio and called Comet company.

"This is Spectre 1-1 to Comet actual, I am designating a target for an artillery barrage, fire when ready."

" _Roger that Spectre 1-1, Crackers will fire in 30 seconds."_ Comet's company commander said.

True to the company commander's word, Williams could hear the shrill shrieking sound of the Cracker rockets. While it's iconic sound was an unintended side effect of its powerful rocket motors, manufacturers decided not to fix the 'issue' after hearing that the sound was a useful tool in psychological warfare. The shrieking sound could only be heard for the first 6 seconds of its flight, after which it was almost completely silent, save for a barely noticeable whistling noise. This would mean that unless one could spot the rocket and calculate its trajectory quickly, it is extremely difficult to tell where it would land.

The Batarians learned this the hard way when they first landed on Shanxi.

Machinegun fire from the city quickly lessened in its intensity as many of the veteran soldiers in the alien's ranks quickly dispersed. The inexperienced ones weren't as lucky, as by the time they had caught on to what happened, the rockets had already struck its targets and exploding in a brilliant red explosion with a loud crack accenting each flash.

Half a dozen houses were flattened by the first barrage, but the second one quickly followed through and blasted the rubble apart further. Williams and company arrived at the newly demolished houses to meet barely any resistance. What few Batarians survived quickly retreated further into the city, or was cut down by machinegun fire.

Other elements of 498th Armored Brigade -which Spectre Company is attached to- and APCs from the 332nd Mechanized Brigade -under the 26th Division- arrived beside Spectre company's position and deployed their troops. Almost a thousand well-armed Alliance soldiers exited the armored vehicles and secured the perimeter. Once fully deployed, the soldiers moved forward and began to push into the city.

Gunfire erupted all around as both the Mechanized Infantry and the Marine Tanks attacked swiftly against the enemy forces.

Among other things, Williams noted on how quickly the enemies seemed to rout, though he wasn't complaining a single bit. His Mattis tank fired a high explosive shot from its cannon at a wall that was being used as cover by a squad of Batarians. The wall was pulverized, along with the aliens covering behind it as they turned into unrecognizable orange smears on the ground. The infantry pushed onward with armored support, this time facing the challenge of a Batarian bunker sitting in one of the main streets.

Williams once again took his radio and called in support.

"Hurricane 5-1, there's a bunker blocking the road, we need it taken care of."

" _Copy that Spectre 1-1, Bunker-buster payload on the way."_

The bunker opened fire and suppressed the infantry that was moving forward. AT rockets and cannons fired away from it too, keeping the tanks Williams brought with him at bay. An infantry squad took cover inside one of the ruined buildings to try and find a more suitable fighting position. They fired their own rockets and machine guns but to no avail. The bunker retaliated and fired its cannons at the building, sending it down on the soldiers inside of it.

Before it could do any more damage, the fighters arrived and launched its payload.

One of the fighters did a fly by, flying over the target at high speed. The second one followed suit with a slower speed. A bright yellow glare launched itself from the second fighter and left a trail of white smoke in its wake as it rocketed towards the Batarian bunker. The missile punched straight through the bunker then detonating what Williams thought was the bunker's ammo dump, which blew the entire thing apart, leaving only rubble -unrecognizable from the others around it.

" _Spectre 1-1, Bunker-buster run is complete, nothing there but rubble now."_ The pilot said.

"Good shooting Hurricane 5-1, cold one's on me." Williams told the pilot.

" _Good to hear, Hurricane 5-1 out."_

The tanks and infantry pushed out of their cover, and further into the city. The fighting had died down a little, giving the Alliance forces much needed breathing room. It also gave Williams some time to observe his surroundings further.

Sounds of gunfire could be heard in the distance, this wasn't very odd. What was odd was the fact that a lot of that gunfire seemed to come from the other side of city.

"Whitman, Jackson, you hearing that too?" Williams asked his crew.

It took a minute or so for them to put two and two together.

"Fighting's coming from the other side of city… Did the General send another company to flank?" Jackson asked as she peeked outside from her hatch.

"None that I know of." Williams answered.

"You think it's some local resistance boss?" Whitman asked.

"Could be, lemme phone it in." Williams answered again as he took the radio. "Hurricane 5-1, you mind checking out the other side of the city for me? IR, and EM scans would be much appreciated."

" _Affirmative, taking a peek at the other side."_ The fighter lead said.

The two fighters climbed further from the ground so that they could catch a better view of the city. As they scanned, they noticed that fighting was indeed happening on the other side of the city. They flew closer to the unidentified combatants. They noticed a dozen or so Humans -most wearing civilian outfits- were fighting against the Batarians. The pilots phoned in the information.

" _This is Hurricane 5-1 to all personnel in the area. Locals are spotted on the western section of the city. Looks like they're pitching a fight against four-eyes."_

The General, who was listening to the radio chatter then called up.

" _Confirmed Hurricane, provide CAS for them until otherwise needed,"_ Volter said.

The fighters did a turn around towards the resistance fighters and flew in low to really notice the state of the conflict. Recognizing that the locals were being pinned down, the fighters did a strafing run on the Batarian positions.

The resistance fighters realized that they now had the advantage and pushed against the enemy, guns blazing as they went.

Batarian forces were repeatedly pushed from their two fronts and now found themselves on a fighting retreat to the Command Bunker in the middle of the city.

The advancing Humans are relentless in their assault. They refused to give the enemy any mercy, though the Batarians spared no quarter either.

It came to a point which all remaining Batarian forces were dug in around and inside of the Command Bunker.

Vickers and her flamer tank suppressed the Batarians entrenched outside the bunker's primary entrance, which gave Williams ample time to call in air support.

"Hurricane 5-1, enemy last stand is in a heavy bunker in the center of the city, a little bunker-busting might be needed."

 _"Roger that Spectre 1-1. We're on the way."_

Williams and the attacking Alliance forces had to take cover again due to the overwhelming firepower being wielded by the Batarians. He could hear the machine guns' roaring and the cannons' thumping even from inside his tank. For a moment, all those sounds were drowned out by the sonic booms of the Pythons flying in to launch the missile.

The Python fighters lined up to fire a bunker-buster missile, with the first targeting for the second one. They were about to deploy the payload when the designating fighter's warning system went off.

 _"Radar lock, disengage now 5-2!"_ the leading fighter exclaimed.

A hidden Batarian squad on a roof shot their AA missiles from a portable launcher

Both pilots yanked their controller hard and pulled away as well as firing off flares. The aliens fired a dozen missiles at the fighters.

5-2 managed to evade the missiles targetting him, but 5-1 wasn't so lucky. Two missiles slammed into the fighter's body and wing, sending the fighter into a spin.

The fighter began its fiery descent towards earth and doom with no sign of the pilot ejecting.

 _"5-1, you've got to punch out... Jerry!"_ 5-2 shouted into the radio as his longtime friend and wingman spiraled into the what was certain death.

Williams had a clear view of the entire event and saw everything unfold.

"Dammit! I don't see a 'chute. Does anybody see him?" He said.

5-1's other wing snapped, which accelerated his descent, turning the spinning deathtrap into a metal casket. The wrecked plane finally crashed into the city somewhere in the east.

The radio crackled as a Marine called in.

 _"This is Dagger 2-1, we have visual on the crash site, doesn't look like he made it out."_

Williams let out a string of curses under his breath.

"Fucking hell! We still need that air-strike. Do we have any other air assets in the area?" He shouted into the radio.

 _"Nein Captain, calling in other elements of Hurricane squadron are tied up on other parts of the city, it seems we're on our own for this one."_ The General announced in the frequency.

It was at that point in which Hurricane 5-2 spoke again.

 _"I can hit the target, as long as someone's targeting for me."_

Williams looked to his crew for confirmation and was answered with silent nods.

"We can do it." He then answered in the radio.

 _"Copy that Spectre 1-1, get an IR beam on those bastards, and I'll give 'em hell."_ 5-2 said somberly.

Williams tank pushed forward out of cover, with Jackson peaking out of the hatch with a laser designator. Once again, 5-2 flew towards the target with a sonic boom and synced its targeting system to Jackson's laser designator. A second before he was in effective range his radar-lock warning began beeping, telling him that the Batarians that had shot down 5-1 -his closest friend- are now locking onto him. He contemplated pulling the stick and getting himself out of it. He had a few seconds left before they had a full lock. He could survive, maybe survive the war, come back home and...

No.

Turning around now would turn his brother-in-arms' sacrifice into nothing. He couldn't do that. _Never_.

Taking a deep breath, 5-2 focused on his target. Jerry had died for this, he would not let his death be in vain. A good 4 seconds had passed before he was in range. Now that he was, he launched the missile, then tried to evade the missiles which had already locked onto him.

He fired off another set of flares and jinked his plane to the right, narrowly avoiding three missiles. He turned sharply to the left, this time avoiding another 4 missiles.

 _'4 more!'_ He thought to himself.

He committed himself into a barrel roll as he fired off another set of flares. 2 more of the missiles missed him by mere inches and zoomed past his cockpit. He himself could feel the canopy rattle from the gust of wind that the missile left behind. He now turned in a 90-degree turn by a building, causing a missile to slam into it instead of him. By now there was only one more missile left in his tail. All he had to do was punch the flare button again, and he would be home free. At least he would be, had it not been the fact that his flares had jammed.

"I thought they fixed that fucking glitch!" He shouted at no one in particular.

5-2 tried another barrel roll to avoid the missile, but this time it had caught up with him, and exploded behind his engine, severely damaging his tail, disabling his engine, as well as sending shrapnel which scratched and scarred the plane in all directions. He tried struggling to keep his jet level but realized that the explosion had done more damage than he had thought. He was now flying dead stick!

"Fuck fuck fuck!" he repeatedly cursed at himself as he helplessly watched his plane crash into a building, go straight through, then run into another one.

 **-000-**

 _ **Qing Conservation Park, 12 Miles from Chiang Kai City, Shanxi, 6 Hours later.**_

"We've got word from the Shaoji Cell, the Alliance has secured that region! If they're going to keep up that pace, they'll be here by the end of the month."

This surprised him. The Alliance was making progress far faster than he had anticipated. He would have to move faster if he was going take full advantage of the invasion.

"We need to move faster then. Tell your boys to move up the timetable. We need to start Operation Shackle Snapper sooner than expected." The man told the informant.

"Easier said than done, the Marshall is already wary of giving us so much leeway. It'll be a challenge to convince him to start deploying the _Ra'aksorgat_ with the bare minimum amount of oversight."

"Then we need to start stretching him thin. I'll cook up a plan to get rid of some the more senior officers." The man said again to his informant.

"No! there are still some that can be swayed." The Informant objected. "Give me some time, and I will convince them to help us."

"You have a week to do so." The man said coldly. "I need a week at most to plan the assassinations."

The Informant was about to object again, but the man cuts him off before he could.

"Remember that time is of the essence. Convince as much as you can, then send me a list of the ones that agreed. Anyone else who isn't on that list will be exterminated."

The Informant was undoubtedly angered at this, but once again the Man spoke.

"Look, I know most of these guys are your friends. But we can't take any risks. This is our freedom that we're talking about! Any wrong step and almost a year of delicate planning will have gone to waste." The man reasoned.

"I know... But it doesn't make it any easier." The Informant relented.

The alien took a deep breath, then began to head towards the basement's exit.

He climbed out of the basement, and into a bombed out building. He exited out of it and into the courtyard where his men were stationed.

A Batarian -his second-in-command- walked up to him with a bottle of traditional Batarian alcohol, which the Informant gladly took and drank.

"What did our mutual acquaintances say, Cathka?" the second-in-command asked.

"We're moving up the timetable. We're starting Shackle Snapper by the end of two weeks." Cathka answered. "Call up those whom you trust and tell them of our plan, Dov'tok. A new future for the Batarian people starts by the end of this month, and we will be its pioneers!" Cathka, returning the bottle to him and entering his APC. He then left, heading towards Occupation HQ.

"Well, father's already disappointed in me. Might as well as go all in." the younger Dov'tok said as he emptied his bottle into himself.

 **-000-**

 **A/N:**

 **And this basically sets up my justification for turning the next arc(?) into a much easier fight for the Alliance and the Hierarchy. Introducing: The Batarian Resistance! Basically, you have a bunch of dudes who've been stepped on their entire lives, and then told to work for the dudes who've been stepping on them their entire lives, to try and step on another bunch of dudes who might get stepped on their entire lives, and some mutual feelings are going to develop, no? If anything, I guess this is the equivalent of the Germans Blitzing France, but France is in a civil war, so the Germans help the side they like then install them in control of France when they're done.**

 **Basically, my go-to HOI 4 strategy as Germany.**

 **As always, thanks for reading. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Review or PM me your thoughts on things, I'll try to reply to them.**

 **Again thanks for reading, and enjoy the rest of your day.**


	16. Detainment

_**Camp Rogain, Shanxi, July 21, 2192, 0500 Local Time.**_

"What's the word Thom?" Travis asked his gunner as he took a sip of his morning coffee.

Shanxi had a 29-hour cycle, 5 hours more compared to Earth, which meant that they all had to go around working longer times than they might be used to. Officers were generally forgiven for taking early nights at situations like these, though grunts don't get any slack on this.

"Something about a POW camp/fortress-thing off the coast on a cluster of islands somewhere." The gunner said, passing a data pad to the Lieutenant Colonel. "Satellite recon shows heavy AA emplacements in the islands. Mammoths are too slow, and Goliaths are too big of a target."

"So how in the hell are we supposed to get the ground pounders there then?" Travis asked as he flicked through the Sat-Con pictures. Thom wasn't kidding when he said the island looked like a fortress. Barely any of the original island was visible anymore, save for a few patches of land near water, and on the sheer cliffs of the islands.

"That's the kicker, some of the locals pitched in, grunts are gonna be using boats."

"A space-ship? I thought that stack of bricks was stuffed with more guns than your average Texan house?" Travis said, looking at Thom from the corner of his eye.

"Not space-boats, boss. Boat-boats. Like legit, on water boats. With a diesel motor and shit." Thom said as he swiped on the data-pad until it displayed a dozen or so boats, some of them armed with MGs, the others looked like it was used more often on seasonal fishing trips.

"You have got to be shitting me." Travis said in disbelief.

 _ **Half an hour later…**_

"…and as the data-pad that you've all been provided has suggested, you will be escorting real, surface-ships, towards the POW camp." The ACI officer said during the briefing. Travis was still in disbelief, and Thom was honestly having a hard time keeping his face straight.

"We're actually using older tech to fight the bastards?" Travis asked incredulously. "We might as well as go back to using gunpowder!"

"It's the only thing that four-eyes probably haven't thought of Colonel." The ACI officer said again. "Your Mi-144s are fast and agile enough to evade Triple-A fire. For SAMs you could either chaff it like usual, or you could try a new alternative."

"And what's that?" Thom asked.

"I was getting to that sergeant… We've gotten a new shipment from Mars. Next-gen MGs, built using the freak's own tech. Rate of fire is stupid fast, and accuracy is quite impressive, the targeting computer should be able to help you shoot down incoming missiles if need be."

The officer brought up a picture of the new gun to the projector.

"It draws a lot of power, so we're only mounting it on a few squadrons for now. You won't have to worry about running out of ammo soon, it runs on a lead-block feeding system, like the alien's guns."

The officer brought up another picture of the gun, this time with its front half on fire.

"It does overheat fast though, so go easy with the trigger."

 **-000-**

 _ **Somewhere else in Shanxi, two weeks earlier…**_

Zaeed opened his eyes to find he was inside a barely empty room, which was barely furnished. He tried to recollect what had happened to him before he blacked out. He remembered trying to hold off the Batarians, his company commander being brutally killed, falling back to their 'Alamo' and being overrun…

He remembered everything now. Zaeed bolted up realizing that he had been captured. He looked around the room and recognized the makeshift toilet and a bowl filled with what he surmised to be someone's food. He looked around further and found another occupant in the room.

"You're finally awake, now how about that!" The other occupant said. He, for Zaeed recognized the voice to be a man's, was hiding behind a long shadow cast by the wall. "I was getting worried, though they might have gotten you."

"How long have I been out?" Zaeed said, rubbing the back of his neck.

"A couple days or so." The man said as he got up and revealed himself. He was dark skinned, though not an ebony dark. A Hispanic, Zaeed thought to himself. "When they threw you in here, you looked like shit, got a nasty scar on your face. Dragged you out during what little outdoors time we're given, got some friends to take care of your cuts and bruises. Discreetly of course."

Zaeed touched his face at the mention of the scar. Sure enough, he could feel rough patches of skin, and some very subtle lining on his face.

"I suppose I owe you for that then." The wounded soldier said.

"I suppose you do." The man stood up and walked over to where Zaeed was, and extended a hand forward. "The name's Victor Santonuevo."

The soldier took the man's hand and got a closer look at him.

He was an older person probably between his 40s to 70s, Zaeed couldn't exactly tell -modern medicine doing wonders to a Human's lifespan and all- how old Victor must really be. He had a few wrinkles here and there, and his hair hadn't seemed to begin graying.

"Well then Victor, where the hell are we?" Zaeed asked.

"That is easy, we're in a prison camp/fortress built in the Jian Liu islands, in the Guanxi strait." Victor said, motioning for Zaeed to take a peek out the window "The place doubles as both an internment camp, and a staging ground for the Batarian military."

Through the small, barred hole that served as the cell's 'window,' Zaeed saw gunships and transports flying around, transporting troops and equipment between the continents.

"Well, that means the Alliance will be hitting this place soon. We need to coordinate the folks here, help the Alliance troops take this place over." Zaeed said, still surveying the fortified islands.

There were several sentry towers overlooking the _inside_ of the prison complex. No doubt to keep them inside. A SAM launcher was barely noticeable in between the concrete structures, and it was heavily fortified too. A squad, maybe two were guarding it. He couldn't tell, the Batarian silhouettes blended in with each other.

"Figured that you'll say that. Resistance in this prison is heavily disorganized, it's gonna be hell trying to find out who's doing what here. We're gonna need to do some sleuthing to get this place in tip-top shape if we want a chance at even getting out." Victor replied coolly. "I've got a few leads, but I've heard of some kind of gang calling themselves 'Yellowcoats'. Not sure who the hell they are, but word around is they're planning something big. If we can get them and some of the other gangs to work together, we'll stand a lot bigger chance in beating four eyes."

Zaeed considered this. It wasn't unusual for prisoners to group up into gangs and form up rivalries. He should know, most of the soldiers he led was a part of his gang back when he was in prison. It was pure chance that the Alliance had decided to start conscripting prisoners into the armed forces.

"Any idea where they're based?" Zaeed asked, turning away from the window and looking at Victor once more.

"Can't say for certain. The aliens shuffle the cells every few days. They think it stops us from ganging up, though that obviously didn't work." Victor chuckled as he said. "We get limited outside time, we better use it properly."

 _ **A few days later…**_

"Vic, I think I found one of them." Zaeed whispered to his now former cellmate. They were being herded out to the courtyard for their daily 'out time'. "One of the boys out there recognize me from my juvie days, said he'll set me up with a guy later."

"That's great." He said in return. "This is the first lead I have in months. When do we meet him?" Victor asked after that.

"Not we Vic, just me. These guys are paranoid as hell. They've only agreed to see me." Zaeed told him in return. Victor looked disappointed in this, it wasn't surprising with all things considered. He's been looking for the Yellowcoats for months without end. To have some fresh-blooded youngster steal his glory from him was almost insulting.

"Just you? You sure you can trust these guys?" Victor turned to the younger man as they finally entered the courtyard.

"Of course, I bloody can! What kind of question is that? These are my friends, of course I can trust them." Zaeed all but shouted. The thought that his friends would turn against him was completely preposterous to him.

Victor looked torn. He wanted to join Zaeed in his meeting, but it was obvious that he couldn't. All he could do was keep watch on his 'friend' from afar.

Zaeed went to find his contact. The note he was given told him that he was to meet one of these illusive Yellowcoats. He approached the entrance to an unused laundry room. Apparently one of the washing machines had exploded. Most electronics there were fried and destroyed, leaving the room useless. The Batarians didn't want to waste the effort to fix the laundry room, and instead moved the load to another laundry room, or had an external facility do it for them.

He looked around to make sure nobody was watching him, then slowly pried open the steel doors. He slipped through the crack and closed it behind him.

Zaeed was early to the meeting. He had a good amount of time to stake out the place, plan an escape route if necessary, or an ambush if push comes to shove. He just needed to inspect all the rooms and…

' _Shit!'_

Zaeed peeked at a corner and spotted a dozen Batarians, armed and armored as all Batarians in the complex are. The meeting was definitely compromised. He slowly took a step back, and tip-toed back to the door. He'll have to tell Victor that the meeting was now a dead end. As he reached the door, Zaeed once again tried to pry the door open, but as he slowly pulled the door, he was surprised to find it all but fly open. Zaeed stumbled and landed on his back, and when he got his bearings back, he realized that there was now a pair of Batarians looming over him. The pair of aliens grabbed him by the soldiers and lifted him up. A third one entered through the door and shut it behind him. The four-eyed alien sneered and punched Zaeed in the gut a few times before having him dragged into the room where Zaeed had first seen the aliens grouped up. They dropped him on the ground and one of them stepped on his back, keeping him from getting back up.

"We found this one snooping around, what do we do with him?" the Batarian that had kicked the imprisoned soldier asked.

"He might be one of Zahn's boys. We can't let him learn what we're up to, get rid of him." The leading Batarian said.

The Batarians dragged Zaeed further into the room and pinned him into the wall.

"Gotta make this look like a gang kill, can't let the others know it was us." One of them said.

The Batarian that seemed to be in charge pulled out a knife from his belt and brought it up to stab Zaeed. At that moment, when the attacking Batarian was most vulnerable, Zaeed struck back. He kicked back against the wall, which forced him and the Batarians that were holding him back.

The paratrooper twisted around and struck the Batarian who held the knife, forcing the alien to drop it. The two then scrambled to seize the knife. Zaeed grabbed the knife from the ground and whirled around to attack the Batarian who he had wrestled with, but then had the wind knocked out of his lungs as a Batarian tackled him. He realized that one of the Batarians who had pinned him earlier struck from behind him.

Zaeed and the alien wrestled on the ground and struggled for the upper hand. The Batarian elbowed the Human in the face and began choking him while he was stunned. Now losing the battle, Zaeed began to panic ever so slightly. Zaeed began hitting the alien at his sides, to no avail. He increased the frequency and intensity of his attacks until he felt his hands brush on a metallic object in the alien's hip. Realizing that it was the Batarian's sidearm, he began trying to yank the gun out of the magnetic holster. Fortunately for Zaeed, the alien was preoccupied in trying to suffocate his opponent and was not paying attention to what the man was doing.

Zaeed managed to slip the pistol out and shoved it onto the Batarian's face. However, just as he was about to pull the trigger, a third party intervened in the brawl.

"What the hell is going on here?" Zaeed heard and recognized the voice.

The Batarian choking him was shoved away by the intervening man, and a pair of hands picked up Zaeed.

Zaeed shook himself off the man who picked him up and recognized him as his earlier contact.

"Wilson, what the hell? You're in on it with them!" Zaeed said as he drew the pistol on his old friend.

"Yes I am Zaeed, but not like that…" The older man said. "It's a matter of mutual benefit."

"Mutual benefits? What mutual fucking benefits! These Four-eyed freaks are the enemy!" the soldier shouted back at his friend.

"No we aren't." One of the Batarians then said, walking in between Zaeed's gun and Wilson.

"Really now? If you're not our fucking enemies, then why the fuck are you even on this planet, huh?" Zaeed said shoving the gun into the Batarian's face.

The Batarian clenched his fists and looked as if he was about to punch Zaeed, but then he took a deep breath and spoke.

"Your enemy is the Batarian Hegemony: The rulers of our homeworld, and over 94 percent of the Batarian population."

"What about the rest of the 6?" Zaeed asked, tightening the grip on the pistol.

"Lucky enough to be free." The Batarian answered. "That is what I, we, are fighting for: to be free."

"You'll have to forgive me for thinking that's a whole load of bullshit."

"You'll also have to forgive me for thinking that you smell like a pile of varren-shit, but our opinions don't factor in on this; the fact remains is that we have a mutual enemy."

A few tense seconds passed by in what felt like an eternity. After some heavy contemplation, Zaeed finally lowered his pistol, though he did not take his finger off the trigger.

"All right barf-face, I'll bite."

 **-000-**

 **Apologies for not updating in the past 2 months, I had a mega-chapter (around 20k words) in the works to try and wrap a lot of things up before Christmas, but my computer decided that that wasn't cool and decided to crash the hard disk on me. Long story short I lost a month's worth of progress and after that, I was just way too bummed to deal with it until now.**

 **I still want to clear up Shanxi before Christmas day, but I guess we'll have to see how fast I can churn out chapters in the next few days.**

 **For those who are interested, Watch_Dogs, Assassins Creed IV, and World in Conflict is free on Ubisoft's uPlay until Dec 23 and Steam sale should start within a day or two. Personally, I'd recommend Day of Infamy for World War 2 buffs. The game's real authentic, and there're free updates for it every few months.**

 **Speaking of World War 2, there's this ongoing alt-history comic book series called Uber. Very graphic, but also very interesting (IMO). It's interesting in that while it does go the usual way of 'Nazis make magical superweapon and turn the war' kind of thing, it doesn't go overboard with it ala Wolfenstein. The writers keep the new tech balanced and accessible by both sides of the war. really good read, if you're into that kind of stuff, I would definitely recommend.**

 **Like it? Hate it? Don't feel either way? Write it down in a review or PM them to me! All (constructive) feedback is good feedback to me.**

 **Anyways thanks for reading, and once again I do feel terribly sorry for not updating in so long. As always, I hope you enjoy the rest of your day, and hopefully, I will update soon.**

*EDIT* **Didn't notice the continuity error between the prison rebel's name, should be fixed now**


	17. The Turncoat

**_Guanxi Strait, En Route to the Jian Liu Islands, July 21, 2192, 1800 Local Time._**

" _Hammer Company, this is X-Ray Lead, the islands are in sight, remember to take out the first SAM sites if you want reinforcements or any form of air support."_ The fish trawler's radio crackled.

The marine leader picked up the radio and replied.

"I hear you Moreau. We'll try to leave some of them alive if that's what you want." He said confidently.

" _Hah! Try saying that when your men are knees deep in that shithole Bailey, you'll be begging for us to swoop in to save your asses."_ The lieutenant colonel replied.

" _Cut the chatter gentlemen, remember your missions. Prisoners are top priority, but if you think that they'll be too much of a liability, bypass them and go straight for the control centers."_ Major Harper said, cutting them both off.

Machinegun and rifle fire streamed down towards them from the island. Just as predicted, no heavy ordinance was being fired at them. They never thought that anybody would even attempt a surface based landing.

"30 Seconds! God be with you!" The boat's driver shouted through the rising sounds of warfare, barely being heard over the thundering of the artillery guns.

The artillery barrage began splashing down around them, though none of them hit their marks. Between the explosions and water raining down on them, the boats finally ran ashore.

The marines scrambled off their boats and onto the dry land where they were now out of the machinegun's sights.

"Move it up ladies, I want a hole in that wall yesterday!" Bailey ordered as they all rushed into their positions.

A marine brought out his laser designator and pointed it to the sea wall that separated them from the inside of the fortress. Far away, beyond the range of the Batarian AA installations, a Phantom bomber patiently awaits for its signal to launch a single 850 Kg Laser Guided Missile. The missile synchronized to the marine's laser designator and rocketed straight for the sea wall. The missile broke through, detonated inside the wall, and created a large hole in it.

Using the shock of the attack, the marines stormed into the fort and attacked the Batarian defenders. As the courtyard was quite far away from most expected landing zones, security in that section was very disorganized. The Batarian defenders in the courtyard routed as the marines secured their beachhead. Those who tried to run away found themselves locked out and trapped in the courtyard as the defenders that had fled previously locked the doors behind them. Most of them, when they realized about their predicament, hastily threw their rifles away and got onto their knees.

"Base, this is Hammer 1, what's our policy regarding prisoners of war?" Bailey said as his men secured the surrendering aliens.

" _Just make sure they can talk when we get to them."_ Harper answered over the radio.

The marines acknowledged this and unloaded their side arms before reloading it with tazer bullets.

"This ain't gonna kill you, but it ain't gonna tickle either." Bailey heard a marine say as he shot a Batarian in the face with it.

The Batarian prisoners that were shot convulsed from the electric current that now flowed through them, most of them passing out almost instantly. The rest wasn't as fortunate.

While the prisoners were being 'secured', combat engineers had planted special breaching charges designed just to punch through the kinds of doors that were blocking their way. It used a mixture of condensed thermite, starship fuel, and military grade explosives. The thermite and ship fuel would weaken the metal structures holding the door together, then the explosives blast the weakened door apart. The breaching charge began its detonation sequence with a hiss as the thermite began burning through the door. It kept burning for a few minutes until the engineer decided that the door should be weak enough.

"Detonating charges!" he shouted, pulling the trigger on his detonator.

The charge blasted the door off its hinges several meters into the hall, crushing an unlucky Batarian with an audible crunch. The marines stormed inside after throwing in a flashbang, which would serve to disorientate the aliens.

The Batarian defenders, still half blind from the flashbang, opened fire even before the smoke from the explosion had cleared and managed to hit three marines, one of which was the combat engineer.

"I need suppressing fire! God damnit, where're our SAW gunners?" Bailey shouted out from behind cover. The marine with the LMG scurried up positions so that he could have a good line of site to the enemy. Deploying his bipod, he began hammering away.

The suppression from the LMGs gave Bailey and his men excellent cover to advance and engage the Batarians in close quarters fighting. Low ranking Batarian soldiers aren't experienced in such close quarters fighting. Those who do have the experience still aren't as adept at it as the alliance marines they are facing. While the defending aliens enjoyed superiority in numbers at first, the marines slowly whittled down their numbers until their numbers didn't matter anymore.

The Batarians pulled out to the section of the compound that the first batch Batarian SAMs were located. The marines pushed out of the hallways and into the first SAM sites and hammered down on the Batarian defenders once more. The less professional soldiers of the Hegemony had begun to crack in the face of a more adept foe, and here the seams of the Batarian status quo can be seen falling apart.

-000-

" _Alert! Alert! We are under attack"_ The fortress's PA announced as the emergency sirens blared off.

Dov'tok and his squad moved towards the prison command center where the cell controls were. He moved past the guards in the hallway, nodding to each one. With each guard's confirmation, they joined his ranks and marched towards the prison control. When he reached the control center's door, his squad now numbered a little over two dozen. The Batarians who were guarding the control entrance themselves looked at Dov'tok and his posse, then decided to excuse themselves from guard duty.

The Batarian Yellowcoats, entered the control center, though their presence wasn't immediately acknowledged.

Dov'tok motioned to his Yellowcoats to secure the room, which they did quickly. He then approached the officer in charge of the operation and spoke up.

"Captain Zardak?" Dov'tok asked, making a confirmation of his target.

"What is it?" The Batarian Captain said, turning around to face Dov'tok.

"I'm assuming control of this operation effective immediately, under General Dragat's orders. He wants you back at the HQ." Dov'tok said. "You are too leave at once."

"Why wasn't I informed of this sooner?" Zardak questioned once again, turning away from Dov'tok and back to the monitors. The captain inspected his omni-tool for any messages and found none. "There are no messages here from the General! What tricks are you playing?"

"I was afraid that it would come to this…" Dov'tok said. He quickly took his pistol and shot the captain directly in the face. His pistol was loaded with the shield piercing mods, which bypassed the captain's shields and punch clean through his head, leaving a large gaping hole in the back of his skull. The captain fell down and his head hit the ground with a splat. The Yellowcoat soldiers followed their commander and opened fire on all other armed Batarians. The ones working on the computers quickly gave up without a fight.

"You two, guard the entrance. The rest of you, get to work." Dov'tok ordered.

The Yellowcoats went and did as they were told. They held the surviving technicians and ordered them to disable all security systems at gunpoint. The camera monitors mounted in the room showed that the prison cells had begun opening one by one, and the security blast doors had unsealed themselves. The prisoners came out slowly, one by one at first. They were cautious, and nobody could really blame them for it. However, after the first few prisoners left their cells unimpeded, the rest followed suit. Chaos broke out as soon as the prisoners realized what had happened. Dov'tok took a few more seconds observing the camera feeds before accosting his squad and technicians.

"Has worm program been installed yet?"

"In a little bit more... And it look's like we're done." one of the Yellowcoats said.

"Good, time to make our exit." Dov'tok said.

The Yellowcoats rounded up the technicians and herded them down the hall and towards the central landing pad. The guards watching their shuttle were all his men, more Yellowcoats, and they all boarded their own shuttles and took off from the island.

As the old and sturdy shuttle that Dov'tok boarded took off, several large explosions rocked the island as more of the Human's guided missiles struck the fortress. More Human surface boats landed on the island shore and stormed in as they offloaded. The Batarian could only look away as the shuttle's hatch closed.

This was going to be a long war.

 **-000-**

 **A/N**

 **Sooo sorry that this came out so late! I practically got drafted into a play and had to put off a bunch of stuff I really wanted to do.**

 **But I did manage to finish this earlier, though I did keep pushing back updating this like the lazy ass I am.**

 **So sorry once again guys, I hope you guys enjoyed this one. Write down what you think in a review (or not, it's a free internet after all) and hopefully I can upload a new chapter soon.**


	18. Machinations

**_High Primarch's Chamber, Cipritine, Palaven. July 29, 2192._**

Quentius quietly sat in the waiting room. Though he had submitted his report to High Command, the High Primarch was adamant that Quentius meat him in person, hence why the newly promoted officer is now where he was.

One of Primarch's aides walked into the room and called the captain.

"Captain Trevanian, the Primarch will see you now." The elder woman said.

Quentius picked up his officer's helmet and stood up. The young captain followed the aide into the office where she then left and closed the door behind him.

"Captain Quentius Trevanian, a pleasure to make your acquaintance," Fedorian said as he gave the officer a salute which was promptly returned. "Please, take a seat."

The two Turians took a seat on either side of Fedorian's desk, with the latter pulling out a bottle of aged brandy out of his desk, uncorking it, and then pouring it into two glasses already on the desk.

"I suppose I should be congratulating you son, your name will be written in the history books in the coming years!"

"Thank you, sir." Quentius quickly replied.

"Indeed! Despite the… unfortunate circumstance of the contact, I do believe this will be a boon to our war effort. If these humans can be convinced to join our side, we could pressure the Council on a much wider front, I have no doubt whatsoever that the Asari would not be able to stand such an intense war." Fedorian explained. "

"I suppose that is true, sir. However, I am not entirely sure that they want to join us in our war, as written in my report." Quentius said.

"Ah yes, you did mention that they seem to be more of the isolationist type. I'm quite sure that they'll see the wisdom in joining our side once they see just how much of a hypocrite the Council can be."

Fedorian swirled his drink for a few seconds before sipping from it. He continued after he had downed a significant portion of the brandy had.

"They call themselves the defenders of freedom and liberty? Bah! They would defend that vile race of slavers if it means they could make a meager profit from it." Fedorian scoffed.

An uneasy silence filled the room, with Fedorian clearly waiting for Quentius to say something.

"I see what you mean, but why tell me this, sir?"Quentius asked. "After all, I'm just one captain in a navy filled with thousands of others like myself. What difference would my knowledge of this make?"

Upon hearing this, Fedorian stopped sipping from his glass and looked straight into Quentius' eyes.

"You mean… Oh for Spirit's sake, you were the one who talk to them first Captian Trevanian! No doubt these Humans would prefer a familiar face as opposed to a new one."

Quentius was visibly taken back by this.

"Certainly, a professional ambassador would be more suited to this task?" Quentius tried to come up with a counter argument.

"Ambassador Nyx and his staff are preoccupied keeping the dominions in check. As of right now, you are the one most qualified to be negotiating with these Humans on behalf of the Hierarchy."

"I… I don't know what to say, sir." Quentius barely stammered out.

"A simple yes would suffice, Captain."

Still in shock, he slowly nodded his head in agreement.

"Excellent, I'll inform the good ambassador that he won't have to reschedule his 19 different meetings this month." Fedorian said, now getting up. Quentius followed suit. "I will forward to you the details of your objectives by the end of the day."

Quentius gave the High Primarch a salute before turning around and walking towards the door. The captain left the Primarch's chamber and passed by the aide who gave him a holodisk containing the details of his new ship and command.

Taking a deep breath, Quentius sighed and made his way out. He needed to sort things out, and considering he was at Palaven right now, he might as well as go visit his parents.

 **-000-**

 ** _SPECTRE Corps HQ, The Citadel, July 31 2192._**

"I'm telling you Wrex, something's up with the STG." Vasir said as she rounded the corner, following her comrade. "They've been holding back a lot of information lately… Well, more than usual at least."

Wrex grunted a little in acknowledgement as he opened the door to his quarters.

"I thought that was normal with them." Wrex replied as he dumped his rucksack and practically fell down onto his couch, Vasir dropped her own bag on his bed then dragged a chair from the study desk and settled it opposite of the couch before sitting down. "They've probably found out how the Turians have been getting them to chase their own quads these past few months, and are keeping the details quiet for now."

"If they did, my insider would have told me about it." Vasir said as she dug into her pocket and pulled out a protein bar.

"Since when did you have insiders?" Wrex asked, folding his arms.

"Since a few months ago! How did you think I knew about that Turian shadow raid in Nevos days before their force arrived?"

Wrex quietly sat there thinking, but just before he was about to answer Vasir cut him off.

"Don't you dare say 'my gut told me so', because we both know it's not."

Wrex just gave a shrug and chuckled as he got up and dragged his rucksack into his locker.

"Hey, it was worth a try." Wrex said taking a slab of dried meat from his locker before he closed it, then taking a huge bite out of it. "If something really is up, what do you think it is?"

"I can't say for certain, but it's likely to be game-changing. It might help end this war soon." Vasir said as she finished her protein bar. "On who's favor it'll end the war on is what I'm worried about though."

"You're afraid this might be another Rachni incident?"

"Yes." Vasir deadpanned.

Wrex entered a state of deep thought after this, clearly thinking of the implications of it.

"You're sure about this." Wrex stated more than asked.

After a short beat, and without even waiting for her confirmation Wrex opened his omni-tool and called his secretary. The call lasted less than a minute, afterwards he took his rucksack from his locker again. Vasir followed suit and took her bag own bag and followed him out.

"This better pay off Vasir, Bakara's going to be pissed that I'm not visiting soon."

Vasir just smirked and replied.

"Trust me, my gut told me as much."

 **-000-**

 ** _SSV Sunlight Yellow, Above Shanxi, August 1 2192._**

"So you're telling me that the son of an admiral -you- would willingly betray his own state, kill several of his own men, and leave behind all his family's glory, wealth, and status on the off chance that the very entity that they are at war at –us-, _might_ help him?"

"Yeah." Dov'tok simply answered.

Kahoku sighed and rubbed his temples.

"Do you know what kind of political _SNAFU_ you and your friends just dropped on me right now?"

"I don't know what a _SNAFU_ is."

Kahoku groaned out has he emptied his mug of coffee into himself.

"Christ's sake man, even if I believed you –in which I don't- there's no way to prove that you did everything that you said you did."

Dov'tok leaned forward and placed his handcuffed hands above the table.

"What would convince you that I did all that I have mentioned?"

Kahoku paced around the interrogation table now, stroking his stubble covered chin.

" _If_ you really are working with the Shanxi resistance, as you have claimed, their leaders will know of you. Am I correct in making that assumption?" Kahoku asked.

"It would depend on who you asked. I operated in the Qinq province, if you ask the rebels in Shaoji who I was, they wouldn't know." Dov'tok casually answered.

"That certainly complicates things. You do realize that our forces haven't reached Qing yet?"

"But they will in several days, will they not? In the eventuality that they do, make contact with the Qing cell, talk to the leader about our meeting here."

Dov'tok leaned back into a more relaxed position, signaling Kahoku that interrogation was all but over.

"Keep an eye on him." Kahoku said to the marines guarding the cell.

The admiral left the bland chamber and made his way to the Active Warfare and Control System center by the ship's bridge.

The ACI technicians and officers were busy routing commands and establishing connections to the dozens of resistance cells on Shanxi. Kahoku walked up to the officer in charge.

"Colonel Allistair, I thought you were attached to Drescher's ship." Kahoku said as he shook the man's hand.

"I wouldn't be doing much cooped up in the Jerusalem right now, Major Harper is taking over for me there."

"Glad to have you here either way." Kahoku said as he walked to the holo-table in the center of the room.

"The 99th and 46th Army Corps have already been deployed from the Libertalia and are reinforcing the front as we speak. Volter's 8th Marine Task Force is making his way to the Shaoji-Bei border region, General Isaiah's 16th is getting ready to cross the Guanxi strait, and General Tatsu's Corps has recently secured the city of Xibei." Allistair reported. "And if I may sir, how did your… interview with our guest go?"

"Like trying to dig out of Hell with a spoon. Guy's been cooperative enough, but he's being a huge prick about it." The admiral answered.

The ACI officer chuckled at that.

"He did ask for 'the highest ranking authority leading the liberation force', sir."

Kahoku snorted.

"Interrogations aren't my specialty; Grissom would have been more suited to it." Kahoku paused for a minute to asses the war map on display on the holo-table. "Which of our forces is closest to the Qing province?"

"That would be Volter's Task Force, why do you ask?"

"Our guest told me that his resistance contacts are located in Qing. General Williams was last operating out of that region when he was still in contact. My gut tells me that he's behind all of this." The admiral said as he highlighted the Qing province on the holotable.

"Would you like me to reroute Volter through Qing?" Allistair now asked.

"If he has the forces to spare, by all means. If he thinks that all 8 of his divisions are needed in the Bei region then have the 99th deal with it instead."

Kahoku now turned around and left the busy room. The day was still long, and he decided that a couple hours of rest would be good for his wellbeing.

 **-000-**

 ** _Tykis Frontline Sector, Targora Thoraga , August 2, 2192._**

Warmaster Okeer stood on a hill, surveying the battlefield. The Turian onslaught had been halted for the moment. Through blood, sweat, and battle his forces had grabbed the invading armies by the proverbial mandibles and dragged them into the ground along with his own forces. The Hierarchy's forces had lost all momentum and the frontline has stagnated. Neither his forces nor his rival, General Oraka, could break through the enemy's lines. This lack of action has lead to both forces digging in and beefing up defenses.

If he was going to be honest with himself, he was worried. He couldn't say what Oraka was thinking, but Okeer didn't think things were going well. Sure, they had halted the Turian advance, but settling into static warfare? Such warfare was practically unheard of in Krogan history. Even during the days when the automatic weapon was first discovered, the Krogan people fought a war of motion. Static, trench-based warfare was something his race encountered only once in a short and practically forgotten conlifct in Tuchanka's ancient years.

"Blood-brother!" another Krogan loudly exclaimed as he approached the Warmaster.

Okeer let out a hearty laugh and greeted his close friend.

"Urdnot Jarrod, good to see you again!" Okeer said has he butt heads with the old Urdnot commander.

"I rushed to the front with my Legions as soon as I could to reinforce your defense. The Turians aren't attacking anymore. What happened?" Jarrod asked as he climbed up onto a rock, raising his already considerable height.

"We have stopped them in their tracks my brother, but aren't able to push them back." Okeer said as he turned on his omni-tool to show Jarrod a simplified map of the battlefield. "Neither they nor we can manage a breakthrough at the moment. We lack sufficient supply lines and the numbers to do so. The VI program I have with me calculates we need to at a 6-to-1 odds battle, with our numbers outnumbering theirs to achieve a proper breakthrough and return to the war of motion."

"That would take months, if not an entire year to mass that much forces. The Turians will be massing their own troops as well" Jarrod said. "I don't believe we have the time."

"Why not?"

"The Asari are getting agitated. Matriarch Benezia and her ilk are gaining more and more support by the day. Armali and Serrice have already dropped their support for the war, Majesa and Dassus are threatening to drop support too if the death toll keeps the way it is." Jarrod paused for a second as if considering whether or not to divulge the next bit of information. "There's also word that Illium will soon be seceding from the Republics."

This piece of news wasn't exactly new to Okeer. He had expected for the Terminus Asari state to look forward to seceding from the Asari Republic Union, but he honestly didn't expect them to go after it so soon, especially with the war still in play.

"How… Unfortunate." Okeer said.

Artillery guns thundered in the distance behind them, tracers arced across the sky as they impacted their targets by the Turian's defensive lines.

The Turians replied with their own attacks blue arcs raced across no man's land and crashed onto Council's own lines. A massive counter-artillery battle began and threatened to drown out the two Krogan's voices.

A Turian artillery shell landed dangerously close to the hill they were at, and the two wisely chose to vacate the hill as the artillery guns escalated and intensified their attacks.

"If only the council would let us do what is necessary, we'd wipe the Turians off the face of the galaxy! They would be nothing but a memory, just like the Rachni." Jarrod said as he climbed into the Tomkah's troop compartment.

Okeer climbed up too and sat on the seat across his old friend.

"They will see reason soon Jarrod." Okeer gritted out.

The Tomkah drove away as the hill soon became saturated by artillery strikes. The armored vehicle continued driving deep into friendly territory where it dropped Okeer and Jarrod by the Frontline Central Bunker.

Entering the bunker, the two Krogans were greeted by a Salarian.

"Warmaster Okeer, Battlemaster Jarrod, timely of you to arrive." The STG colonel attached to Okeer's army said. "I was about to call you two for an emergency meeting, this way please."

The two Krogans followed the Salarian to the central chamber in the bunker. Inside they find more officers assigned to the Tykis Sector.

They all took their seats and the STG colonel began the meeting.

"As we've all noticed, current war progress on this planet has stagnated. Disconcerting as it is, the situation is a definite improvement over losing massive amounts of ground and soldiers each day."

A snort from one of the Krogans was heard.

"At Tykis Sector alone, casualties are at several thousand per day before we ceased all offensive operations. Scouts and cyberwarfare teams have reported that the Turians are at the very least suffering similar amounts of losses, though with how bad they've been getting at us information wise lately, I can't guarantee that it's accurate."

A holographic map projected from the center of the meeting table. The frontline of their operating sector was displayed, with the Turian controlled region colored in red, and theirs in blue. Shapes and figures showed where known Turian and Council units were located. Okeer began taking notes on all the extra information he didn't have earlier as he sincerely believed that he would need every single scrap of data available to win this campaign.

A long and bloody fight was coming for them, and Okeer's army was going to be right in the eye of the storm.

 **-000-**

 **A/N:**

 ** _Update March 31:_ Fixed an error in the chronology.**

 **Lo and behold! I have returned. This one lacks in action because I have to set up some stuff. I'm thinking of going on a short detour on the Council front for the next few chapters and the politics, fighting, as well as the scheming between the Alliance and the Batarians are going to take a back seat for a while. I know that I didn't feature the Turian v Council part of the story enough despite the fact that it's what is literally the story summary started off with. I realize that this may have misled some readers, so I will be taking some steps to try and rectify that.**

 **The planet that I will be using on this section, Targora Thoraga (it was actually a typo I made a couple chapters back but I figured it sounded alien enough so what the heck), is one I made up completely. It is not a part of Mass Effect canon, and is my original content.**

 **For those of you who understand the terms used on the last section of this chapter, you will need no explanations, but for those of you who don't: the battle of Targora Thoraga will be very similar to fighting during World War 1. Descriptions of strategy and tactics will mirror those used during the 'War to end all Wars' in that both sides are somewhat inexperienced in it, and that it will be quite bloody. I hope to be able to justify the M rating in the next few chapters, where we (hopefully) dive straight into the mud, blood, and guts that is modern war.**

 **Be sure to point out any errors I made grammatically, also specify where and what kind of error it is so that I may fix it.**

 **Also, I will probably switch to a less episodic(?) title style.**

 **Anyways, thanks for waiting guys, and thanks for reading this chapter.**

 **Leave a review of what you think about the story, or PM me if you feel like it. Thanks again, and enjoy the rest of your day.**


	19. Bear Your Fangs

" _My first impression of Turian organization was… not in a good light, to say the least. They were too rigid in structure, too doctrinal in thinking, with very little space for creative interpretation. Changes in their rigid 'Grand Battle Plan' in the tactical level must be passed up the chain of command, from the lowliest rifleman, to the Chiefs of Staff._

 _I can't tell you how difficult the first few months and years were when it came to organizing joint operations between us two. President Nabwana absolutely despised the overly political nature of their military, and that was saying something when you considered that the President was a career politician."_

 ** _High Admiral Jon Grissom, in an interview for the documentary_** The Greatest War ** _by the_** Elysium News Channel

 **-000-**

 ** _ASV Guiding Light, Docking Bay 12, The Citadel, August 4, 2192._**

Wrex and Vasir entered the cruiser through its docking hatch and was greeted by the ship's crew and the officers attached to it.

"Tela, I suppose you'll be requisitioning my ship again." The Asari Matriarch in charge said.

"Blame the Councilor for that, Aethyta. The councilor assigned this ship to me." Tela retorted.

The crew grimaced and cringed as they listened to the two Asari bickering.

"Can you two tear each other apart later?" Wrex interrupted. "I'd rather get this thing flying as soon as possible."

"I see you're still babysitting my sister, Wrex." Aethyta said as she went and sat down on the commander's seat.

"Well, somebody has to." Wrex joked.

Tela groaned and waved them both off as she went towards the crew's quarters where she would be staying.

As soon as she had left, Wrex started the conversation once more.

"You shouldn't be so hard on her you know." He said to the Matriarch.

"She made it into the SPECTRE Corps, she can handle a dysfunctional relationship with her sister." Aethyta answered, opening her omni-tool and reviewing the ship's current status.

"Oh come on, I get that you're pissed that the Corps chose her over you…"

"At _half the age_." She interjected.

"… At half the age too, yeah. But speaking from an old Krogan to an old Asari half of _my_ age, you wouldn't want your siblings to hate you."

Aethyta just snorted.

"I'm serious! We live for a long time Aethyta. Lovers and friends come and go, but your kin stick around until either you or they die."

"Yeah, I'll keep it in mind." She simply answered.

Wrex grunted his confirmation and went to catch up with the younger Vasir, leaving the senior one alone with her crew.

 **-000-**

 ** _Tykis Frontline Sector, Targora Thoraga, August 9, 2192._**

"Colonel Victus." Oraka greeted as he walked in the observation bunker.

"Oh! Sir, we weren't expecting you so early." Victus said as he quickly tidied up his table.

"As long as you give me a satisfactory report I couldn't give less of a damn what you do in your spare time." Oraka answered.

"Sir, from observation, we conclude that the enemy won't be attacking any time soon and are massing for a large offensive instead."

"So my deduction was right: the Krogan are inexperienced in static warfare. Do you have any suggestions as to what we should do to achieve a breakthrough?"

"If I may, a conventional offensive following established doctrine will be ineffective in achieving a success. A straightforward attack will only result in the repeating of more massive losses, just like what we faced before we settled. My theory is that an intense, focused offensive in key strategic locations, reinforced by reserve units and other support regiments, could blow a hole in their lines. This lapse in their defense should be taken advantage of by fast moving, mobile units. If my theory is correct, this will force the enemy to either pull back from their lines or risk being overwhelmed." Victus explained.

"An unorthodox solution." Oraka said as he considered Victus' plan. He stayed there silently as he thought through all the different plans and solutions presented to him over the past few days.

"It has some potential. Creative, it certainly is, however the problem is that our commanders aren't as experienced in such… flexible warfare. We would have little set objectives, battle plans must be modified and made to adapt in quick succession. Plans made to take advantage of openings in a tactical level may hinder strategic level operations. You should know this Colonel." Oraka continued.

"I see." Victus answered.

"It is worth some merit however. Despite my… reservations about this plan of yours, I can't be certain that it _will_ fail either." The General added.

Oraka stood up and made his way out of the observation bunker, leaving Victus and his comrades there by themselves.

"You'd think after losing so many soldiers in a few days he'd be a lot more open minded." Victus' friend, Kuril, said as soon as the general was out of earshot.

"You can't expect an old Turian to flip a switch like that so easily. General Oraka's been in the service since before we were even born." The Colonel answered. "I'll still be pushing for our plan to be tried though."

"You better, any plan is better than whatever the hell we've been doing the past few weeks." Kuril returned before getting up and leaving the post.

 **-000-**

 ** _The President's Office, Arcturus Station, August 11, 2192._**

"What are the terms they're asking for, and do we know anything about their long-term plans? " President Harper asked as he took another bite out of his dinner.

" _The Batarian revolutionaries are being reasonable so far. They say they want to reform their state into one controlled by the people._ " Grissom said over the call

"But that's right now, how about the next decade, or even the next few year? This is a gamble Grissom, I don't want this to end with something like another 'Soviet Union' seeing how that's going to come back and bite us in the ass."

" _A reasonable assumption, certainly. However we do hold all the cards on the table right now, so to speak. They need our support, we don't necessarily need theirs. We can use that as an advantage."_ Grissom tried to reassure the President. _"We could demand to be involved in the writing of their Constitution if any. If we play our cards right, we could disarm the to the point that they'd be no threat to us._

"You seem to have all these things figured out Jon, maybe we'd be better off with you as president." Harper said with a chuckle.

" _That won't do Donnie, I don't know jack shit about economics"_ Grissom returned.

The two old friends laughed at the exchange.

"Christ, we've come a long way haven't we Jon?" Harper mused.

" _Yeah… I guess we did."_ Grissom answered.

 **-000-**

 ** _Cydonia Mechanics Proving Grounds, Marathon, Mars,_** **_August 14, 2192._**

The red desert of Marathon. A near endless expanse of red dust and hills of sand. Very quiet save for the occasional thunder storm every few months. Today, that is not the case. Today, explosions and gunfire crack and echo through the desert as the Martian tech giant tests it's new project.

Striding across a hail of small arms fire is an individual clad in armor. Bullets pinged and ricocheted off the starship grade metal that encased the man. Slowly he picked up the pace and began to run. Magnetic servos multiplied his power almost tenfold and launched him high into the air as he leapt towards his target. The armored man landed on his target with a smash, crushing it with sheer force alone.

" _Simulation over."_ A robotic voice was heard from an observation post.

The test pilot acknowledged and walked towards the observation post to retrieve his results.

In the post, the engineers and project heads clapped and congratulated each other on the success that they had achieved.

"Congratulations Dr. Coré, the suit's results are beyond expectations. AFCOM will be granting you the budget for further production and development." Grissom said. "A lot of people over at Lawson Biotech is going to be very disappointed."

"Better them than us." She said "Genetically modified super-soldiers for mass production is just plain stupid."

"I suppose so, but then again, their pitch was pretty good, wouldn't you admit?"

"Trust me Admiral, the future of warfare won't be gene-modded super-soldiers. The Tank-Man will be more than capable of doing whatever Lawson promised you, and more." Eva defended. She didn't buy into Henry Lawson's controlled evolution pitch. Not one bit. "Humanity has evolved through its tools, not through changing our physiology. It'd be absurd to grow an extra limb when we can make a drone do the same job much more effectively."

"Well Eva, an ever adapting soldier on an ever changing battlefield is in every army's bucketlist. Hell, it's in mine." Grissom continued. "But I digress. You've already been awarded the contract. I expect that the Tank-Suits will be ready for full deployment by the end of the year."

The High Admiral shook hands with Eva and the other members of the team before heading out.

"Well, looks like it's back to work people. Somebody tell the head of manufacturing that we've got the go ahead. We're going to need at least a thousand suits by the end of the year." Eva said as she got up from her seat and headed for the door. She left the team in the post and got into her personal shuttle that took her back to the company's HQ where she needed to organize the next step of the project and operations.

 **-000-**

 ** _Archive Update:_** **Recorded conversation between Colonel Oraka and Lieutenant Corinthus during the outbreak of the war.**

 ** _Playback start._**

 **Colonel Oraka:** Corinthus, where are you?

 **Lieutenant Corinthus:** Still on my way. We've went into Stage 3 Mobilization. What's going on?

 **CO:** We're at war, get the men ready as fast as you can.

 **LC:** At war? Who shot first!?

 **CO:** The spirits damned Salarians attacked our fleet and are supporting the Batarians, even with our evidence that they sponsored last month's attack. Primarch Antilla has placed us in a state of emergency and the council's already setting in motion their mobilization. Marshal Fedorian is moving us to execute a preemptive strike before they can mobilize the rest of their militaries, and for once I agree with him.

 **LC:** Escalating the war so quickly? It could work I suppose. How long until we're at Total Mobilization?

 **CO:** A week for the frontier colonies, a month for the core worlds.

 **LC:** And the enemy?

 **CO:** Intelligence says two, maybe three months. If red tape probably longer.

 **LC:** That slow? We'll have this war over before the year's Tor celebrations!

 **CO:** Don't count on it. Either ways get here with the men as fast as possible, drag them if need be.

 **LC:** Yes sir.

 ** _Playback end._**

 **-000-**

 **A/N:**

 **Kind of a short update, but it'll have to do for now.**

 **Exam season is almost over for me, meaning that I should have more time to work on this in the next few weeks or so. As of the moment I have to type these on mobile because my laptop broke yet again and I haven't installed a good VPN on my desktop.** **I need the VPN because FanFicion is blocked by my government. Absolute shitheads they are.**

 **Progress on writing is always going. Slow, but always going. I should have another chapter after two weeks.**

 **Remember to leave a review of how you think things are going and point out any grammatical errors you find. I'll fix them if I have the time.**

 **As always, thanks for reading, and have a nice day.**


	20. Bite and Resist

**_Tykis Frontline Sector, Thargora Thoraga, August 17 2192._**

"Artillery incoming!" a sentry shouted.

In a span of a few seconds, all those Turians who were on relaxed positions sprung into action as they ran for cover. Shells whistled through the sky as they arced. Slamming onto the ground, equipment and Turians alike are thrown from the ground as shells exploded. Limbs smeared in blue blood hit the ground separated from their respective bodies. Screams of agony and pain was heard throughout the bases and trenches. The barrage continued even as Turian counter artillery swung into action. The artillery battle lasted for hours, though for the soldiers on the ground it felt as though it would never end. By the time it was over, it became chaotic race to regroup and counter-attack. The Council forces, by virtue of starting the battle in the first place, struck first. Tomkahs modified with heavy armor and tracks moved across the shelled ground that is No Man's Land, shrugging off MG fire and other small arms as Krogan troopers and Asari commandos followed close by, shadowing the armored vehicles.

Being more… liberal than other Turians, Victus used the chaos and carnage of the battle to lead a hastily assembled group of soldiers straight into No Man's Land to ambush their foes. In the remains of a bombed out house, Victus and Kuril's soldiers prepared their trap.

"Set up those launchers over there, we want their backs to us when we start shooting." Victus ordered his men.

Beside him, Kuril was busy assigning different posts for the MG operators as well as Pioneer squads. Bags of grenades were laid out in an orderly fashion around the ruined house, and other munitions were kept away from each other as to avoid a catastrophic explosion in the event of one igniting.

Barely hidden, they waited as the Tomkahs rumbled forward. The armored vehicles drew the fire of more and more machine guns as they passed the charred ruin, some of which ricocheted off the shields and armor onto the house. One such ricochet grazed Kuril's helmet.

"Spirits, you'd think the boys back in the trenches would quit firing by now." He said.

"Let them keep shooting, it'll pay as a good distraction." Victus replied. "Pioneers! What are your statuses?" the Colonel then barked into his radio.

" _Chairi squad here, manually detonated mines are ready, hold on while we get clear, sir."_ One of them said.

" _Jorahm squad, same here."_ Another squad answered too.

More squads ran in their confirmations and Victus ran them through a mental checklist. When the last Pioneer squad sent their confirmation, the Colonel pulled out the detonator and waited for the Tomkahs to roll over the mines. When the first few of them are over the mines, he pulled the trigger.

The explosion wasn't as spectacular or flashy as Victus expected it to be, but even then it had done it's job. Four of the twelve armored vehicles were destroyed, turned into wrecks of metal scrap. The Asari and Krogans using the Tomkahs as cover panicked, as did the other vehicles. They stopped their crawl towards the Turian lines, giving Victus and his soldiers ample time to line up their rocket launchers and fire. The armor piercing projectile bypassed the shields and slammed into the weaker armor in its rear. The hollow charge within the rocket blasted through the thick sheets of steel and rained fire and molten metal into the vehicle's cabin and onto the crew. Burning alive, the crew panicked as they struggled to get out of the metal death traps that their vehicles had become.

With most of the Tomkahs out of the way, the infantry now stranded in No Man's Land became easy prey for the machine guns that Victus had with him. Gunning down the enemy by the dozens, the red and purple blood spilled on the shelled mud as the surviving attackers found themselves to be the ones being pressed. Seeing the enemy pinned down, Victus ordered his men to lob the grenades into the trapped Commandos and Troopers. The grenades tore apart what little survivors there was. One heroic Asari tried to save her comrades by picking up a grenade and trying to throw it away, only to have it detonate in her hands, reducing her into a purple mess, as well as catching several of her comrades too.

As planned, Victus and his men began packing what equipment and munitions they didn't use as they expected the Council's artillery to be brought upon their position quickly. Rocket launchers were removed from their tripods, and said tripods were folded quickly. Those that were too heavy or cumbersome to be carried down stairs was promptly thrown out the windows where they fell into the shelled mud, followed by their operators who jumped off too.

"I want a head count! Who's not here yet?" Kuril barked.

Victus tried to count out his men quickly. He counted 9… 12… 15. He stopped himself there. They came here 18 Turians strong, so who were the last three?

"Wait, Gaz and Kadrali are still in the basement!" a Turian running out of the house said. "We need more hands to pick up the MG and Gaz is wounded."

Victus panicked inside of himself, and hesitated in making his decision. Should they leave them, probably to the two Turian's death, or try to help them at the risk of everyone dying?

Before he could decide, Kuril went up and decided for him.

"Dammit! Junio help me get a rope!" The lieutenant said.

The group then tried to rush and aid their two trapped comrades, but was halted when they all heard the soft thudding of artillery in the distance.

One shot, two shots, four, eight. An entire barrage was coming for them and there was no time to save the two.

"Kuril, stop!" Victus shouted as he tried to pull the lieutenant back. Before he could get to his fellow Turian, the enemy artillery struck the house.

The bombed out house was shelled even further and what little of it was left was pummeled. Shrapnel and debris flew everywhere. A shell landed dangerously close to Kuril and blasted him away and into the Colonel, who fell from the force of colliding with another Turian.

Through the blurry haze that had fallen upon him, he saw that Kuril's armor had cracks on multiple points as well as large bits of shrapnel sticking out of them.

"Soldier down! Medic!" The Colonel shouted out. He could barely hear himself do so as everything was still ringing from the explosion.

He felt a pair of hands pick him up and drag him away from the house. Another Turian picked Kuril up and carried him even as shells began to rain down upon their position. As they hurriedly fled for their trenches, Victus looked at Kuril once more. His brother-in-arms was terribly injured, blue blood had begun to leak from where the shrapnel had struck him. A worryingly large bit of metal had lodged itself on his helmet, and smudges of blue was visible on the lieutenant's visor. Looking at his unconscious friend's body, an uneasy realization dawned upon the Colonel that all this happened, and it was his fault.

 **-000-**

 ** _City of Falaena, Sona Frontline Sector, Thargora Thoraga, several hours earlier._**

Where Tykis was a stagnant battlefield, with sporadic action in between gruelingly long stretches of quiet, Falaena was in many ways, the exact opposite. Fighting here was almost constant and seemingly never ending. Where lines were distinct and visually discernible in Tykis, it couldn't be further from the truth in Falaena. A major city before the war, fighting here done in bitter close quarters combat. Both sides enter a slugfest against each other, constantly moving to outmaneuver their foes. They fight street to street, building to building, and when a city has been faced with constant fighting for the past 5 weeks, every bit of bombed out corners start looking the same.

That is the situation that Asari commando Tristana T'Maris finds herself in. She leapt over a chest high wall as she fled her pursuers, namely a dozen Turian soldiers trying to gun her down. She rounded down the corner and slid through a hole in a wall to try and shake the enemy off her tail. As the Asari kept running away, she heard a large explosion and the sound of concrete crumbling behind her. A small glance to the rear confirmed her theory that the Turians simply blew up the wall and continued the chase.

A hail of gunfire struck her kinetic shield and drained it, leaving her without ballistic protection. Cursing at herself, she made a mental note to upgrade her shields as soon as she could. She motioned her arms and threw a biotic warp down the street, where it collided with a Turian and killed him.

The birds still haven't made counter-biotic armor. That's a relief.

Tristana swung around a corner where she immediately then ducked into a ditch on the side of the road. As her pursuers rounded the corners too, they became confused as to the disappearance of their target. Just as they try to spread out and find her, Krogans and Asari alike sprang out of their cover and ambushed the Turians. Being out of cover, they fell quickly to their enemies. When the fighting had finally died down, Tristana finally emerged from her hiding place and looked around. The enemy had been gunned down in the middle of the street where there was no cover at all. The corpses laid in the ground in formation, a valiant effort to survive she thought to herself. Walking over to the fallen aliens, she noticed one of the writhing on the ground. He didn't look like he was going to make it. As she stood above him, he spoke something in his language, so she couldn't understand. The commando simply pulled out her pistol and shot the dying soldier in the face, killing him.

"That was a bit brutal, wasn't it?" a Krogan trooper beside her asked.

"He was already dead, he just didn't realize it yet." Tristana replied.

The Krogan trooper merely grunted in acknowledgement as he left to secure the rest of the Turian corpses.

As soon as they had finished disposing the Turian corpses, they made their way back to their FOB, cleverly hidden in the city's sprawling underground train system. In there, dozens of injured Asari and Krogan laid in stretchers on the floor while doctors tended to them. Salarian tech operators and other individuals hurried through the narrow corridors. As chaotic the fight above was, it was just so away from combat.

Looking away from all the death and suffering, Tristana entered the makeshift washroom where she used the opportunity to clean herself from all the blood and grime that had begun to form on her body and suit.

Afterwards, some rest might be overdue.

 **-000-**

 ** _Archive Update:_** **Conversation between Field Major Jack Harper and Convict 6621-A Zaeed Massani.**

 ** _:Start Playback:_**

 **[Harper enters the room and sits on a chair.]**

 **Harper:** Mr. Massani, in the flesh.

 **Zaeed:** What d'you want spook?

 **H:** What makes you think I'm a 'spook'?

 **Z:** You're too well dressed to be with the Civil Protection Service, but your uniform doesn't stand out enough to be Federal Security. That leaves the military and the ACI. Spooks

 **H:** A keen observation on your end, Mr. Massani. I'm here on a… recruitment drive, if you will.

 **Z:** What for?

 **H:** I'm sure you're well aware of the war's progress these days.

 **Z:** Get to the point.

 **H:** To the point it is. Basically put, we need more boots on the ground, and the volunteers joining in aren't fulfilling the yearly quota.

 **Z:** Is that it? You're dragging me into some kind of penal battalion?

 **H:** Not exactly. This is entirely voluntary. If you don't want to, you don't have to. If you do however, we're willing to cut your prison sentence.

 **Z:** By how much?

 **H:** Well, we can't guarantee how much we'll be cutting off your time… but we have other guarantees.

 **Z:** Like what, strapping a bomb collar on me?

 **H:** Please, nothing so crude. You have a family, am I correct Mr. Massani?

 **Z:** I'm not even going to ask how you know.

 **H:** If you accept the offer, they will be taken care of. Housing, food, education, you name it.

 **Z:** And if I don't?

 **H:** Well, there are plenty others we could offer this to. You declining the offer is no loss on our end.

 **Z:** So I lose either way?

 **H:** You could see it that way, or you could see it as a way to get involved in your son's life, even if your wife disapproves.

 **[Several seconds of silence]**

 **Z:** Fucking hell, when do I start?

 ** _:End Playback:_**

 **-000-**

 **A/N:**

 **I feel like there's a significant drop in writing quality. It might be myself slipping, or the fact that I've had to write these few chapters on a hand phone that's got to be 6 years old by now.**

 **So, Turians duking it out with the Council, as promised. I think I might dive into Turian politics in the next chapter but I'm not sure. Vasir and Wrex are gonna be pretty important for the overarching plot, and hopefully I'll be able to expand Tela and Aethyta's relationship further in the future.**

 **Honestly, trying to come up with new characters that readers might get invested in is quite a challenge on my end, especially considering that when it comes to writing, I have the same level of finess and subtlety that a man running around on fire while screaming incomprehensibly at the top of his lungs does.**

 **Well either ways, here is the 20** **th** **chapter of the story. Remember to point out my mistakes (kindly pls) so that I could improve from them. Put them on a review or message it to me or something.**

 **As always, thanks for reading and enjoy the rest of your day.**


	21. Know Thine Enemy

" _A lot of crazy things happened to us over the 22nd century and we'll into the 23rd. The first use of Orbital Weapons in open warfare, World War 3 somehow not ending up in a nuclear slugfest, a massive civil war between us Humans, the Hohenzollern family retaking their throne, and yet somehow that's not the craziest curveball the God damned universe could have thrown at us. Somehow it wasn't content with us shooting each other. For whatever insane reason that I can't figure out even if my life was at stake, the universe decided to throw an aggressive nation-state of slavers at us, then drag us into not just one, but three entire Galactic scale wars within 60 years. By God, just thinking about it makes me dizzy."_

 _ **An excerpt from President Steven Hackett's autobiography :**_ Wrong Men; Right Time ( _ **published 2267 by Harper Multimedia Co.)**_

 **-000-**

 _ **Camp Taril, Tykis Frontline Sector, Thargora Thoraga, August 20 2192.**_

Kuril's eyelids slowly opened as he woke. His entire body felt numb and heavy, a sign that showed he had been under anesthetics for a prolonged amount of time. His eyes slowly scanned large room for something or someone he could notify of his waking up. Far in the left corner of his eye, he spotted a Turian wearing a long blue coat. Kuril used what little strength he had to lift his right hand and call out to the blue coated Turian.

The sound that Kuril made was barely discernible as a word, but it had done what it was meant to do. The blue coated Turian looked over to Kuril and called her assistant over. The injured lieutenant dropped his right hand now and it plopped onto the bed. He didn't feel anything though, everything was still numb.

"Welcome back to the land of the living lieutenant." The Turian doctor said. "How do you feel?"

Kuril groaned out noises that vaguely sounded like 'I feel like shit.'

The doctor laughed slightly at that.

"That's the anesthetics still in effect. It should wear off within the next few hours." She continued. "You've taken quite the beating a few days ago. You're lucky to be alive."

Kuril lightly nodded.

"We've had to remove at the very least 49 different bits of shrapnel from your body, but right now there's no telling how much we've missed."

The assistant brought a medical board towards the bed. He then posted several x-ray and sonar shots on the board. Kuril assumed that was him.

"Most of the metal shrapnel we've pulled out of you didn't really do too much damage. Many of them didn't even pierce your plates." The doctor pointed to dozens of shiny metal bits on the pictures. "These were generally inconsequential, but there were several pieces that were of concern. These metal pieces had caused major damage to your body. Had it not been for your armor, we'd be picking you up in pieces."

The assistant brought up a box filled with large metal shards, lightly covered in blue fluids. Kuril assumed the blue fluids were his. Well, who else could it be?

"I understand that some soldiers like to keep things that nearly killed them as memorabilia? If you wish to keep these, you may. If you don't, we'll dispose of them as usual." The doctor said.

The assistant placed the box of shards on the bedside table and then went to retrieve some other items.

"One complication did happen when we we're removing the shrapnel pieces however." The doctor added.

 _Oh boy._

"One of them had struck you hard enough that it had lodged and somehow hooked itself into your endoskeleton, specifically, your cranium."

The assistant now returned with a mirror and held it in front of Kuril. Now able to see his own face, he could clearly see a sizeable bit of metal sticking out of his head. The metal bit had cracked his forehead plate and bits of blue blood was visible where it stuck out. A shitload of anesthetics must have been being pumped right into him because he couldn't feel anything on him, not even the metal projectile the size of his finger halfway through his face.

"We weren't able to pull that one out with the equipment we have at the moment. We'll have to get you to a better equipped facility to get that thing removed."

Kuril nodded slightly. He was sure he should be freaking out about the fact that he was still alive with a potentially deadly object in his forehead, but he didn't have the energy right now. Besides, he's pretty sure he could freak out later.

"There is… one more thing we've left out." The doctor then added.

 _The gift keeps on giving it seems._

"I said that had it not been for your armor, we'd be picking you up in pieces. It's true for a certain extent.

The doctor took a deep breath and thought out her words.

"There isn't really any easy way to say this, but… one of the shrapnel pieces had struck you hard enough above your left elbow that it had shattered all the bones there. I'm afraid that we've had to amputate most of your left arm."

She kept quiet to let it sink in for a few seconds. After some quite some time, Kuril started turning his head slowly to the left to inspect the doctor's claims. When he finally could see where his left arm should have been, all he could see was a stump where his elbow was. On that stump, his plates and been broken and cut off, leaving it shortened and dulled.

Kuril entered a state of panic when it fully dawned onto him the implications of loosing his arm. Things turned into a blur as he felt his body simply move. His movements started becoming erratic and wild. The doctor had ordered her assistant to try and restrain the lieutenant but before he could, Kuril started slashing and cut the doctor in the jaw, leaving her with a wound which started bleeding. The assistant now started administering the anesthetics into Kuril's bloodstream again, causing Kuril to slow and calm down.

With the anesthetics starting to kick in, Kuril started feeling lighter, as if a strange calm had blanketed him. Darkness started creeping in from the back of his kind and removing all sensation from his body. The only thing he could feel now was a lingering phantom pain.

 **-000-**

 _ **New Canaan Near-Orbital Housing Station, Above Eden Prime, August 21, 2192.**_

Quentius sat quietly as the Human ambassador, Goyle, finished off her meeting. This was the 16th meeting they're having since the Eden Prime debacle. Today he was hoping to start the formalization process of first contact. The door to the ambassador's temporary office opened and Goyle exited the room. What Quentius didn't expect was for a Batarian to follow her out of the room. Standing up, Quentius decided to investigate as he greeted them. Clearly the Alliance had more going on they were letting on.

"Ambassador Goyle, good morning." The Turian captain greeted.

"Ah, Captain Trevanian, I didn't realize you'd be here early." Goyle said as she shook the Turian's hand. "I don't believe the two of you have met. Captain, this is Mr Dori'han Jarth. He's here as our contact in the Free Batarian Movement."

"Dori'han Jarth? Owner of Jarth Excavations?" Quentius asked.

"That would be Jarth the Elder. I am the younger." The Batarian corrected.

"I see. Ambassador, I didn't realize that the Alliance finds it morally fitting to partner itself with the slaver elites of the Hegemony?" Quentius remarked.

"And what the Hierarchy does is no different? You use your prisoners of war, and all the occupied citizens you hold as slaves in your munitions factories." Jarth retorted.

"A necessity, as opposed to a culture. All we press into hard labor are criminal scum, those who wouldn't be too far off from your ilk." Quentius returned.

The two aliens stared each other down, four eyes staring at two. They've had stood off for what felt like minutes when Goyle interrupted the two.

"Gentlemen, another time perhaps." The Ambassador said.

The two aliens, a head taller than the Ambassador they were meeting turned to look at her. Jarth, having more eyes to spare, noticed that the Alliance Marines currently on guard had tensed up and we're gripping their rifles. No doubt that they were expecting the two to come to blows. The Batarian business heir cleared his throat.

"I suppose we should continue this talk later." The four eyed alien said.

"Yes, I suppose we should." Quentius said.

The Batarian excused himself and left, making his way back to his room. Goyle brought the Turian captain into her office and they both sat down. The Ambassador poured herself a glass of wine and was about to pour one for the Turian too, but stopped herself when she remembered that Turians couldn't consume Human foods.

"I understand that you may be upset about us associating with the owners of Batarian megacorporations, but war isn't exactly our species' favorite pastime." She said.

"I understand trying to end the war as quickly as possible, but is it worth sacrificing your principles? Jarth Excavations are every bit responsible for the atrocities happening in the Hegemony. I'm not sure if public opinion is going to be popular on this." Quentius commented.

"Jarth and his fellow business oligarchs are willing to fund the Free Batarian Movement, a task that the Alliance is currently incapable of doing. In exchange for backing the Insurgents, we've agreed to not dismantle their companies." Goyle drank from her glass. "In all honesty, arming the Insurgents wasn't our top priority up until June, up until Eden Prime. With you giving us a bigger picture, our priorities changed from wiping them out, to making sure we have allies by the time we get our galactic footing straight."

"And are we going to be one of those allies?" the captain asked.

"Depends if this Citadel Council will be a threat to us. Even if President Harper wants good relations with the both of you, we know we're going to have to choose one side over the other at one point." The ambassador explained.

"Then why help us with the Batarians at all?" Quentius asked. "If you make the right moves, I'm sure the council wouldn't mind replacing the Batarians with your people."

"The President has made it clear to me that no alliances are to be drawn up until we officially announce our presence in the wider galaxy. Even then, any alliance of sort between us or any other race will not be popular in public opinion. First contact with the Batarians has caused xenophobic sentiments to grow exponentially. It didn't help that we've been cultivating it through the Propaganda Ministry either." Continued Goyle. "Speaking of which, the Alliance Parliament has agreed to formalization of first contact. They've agreed to host a meet-up with your Ambassador Nyx, whenever he is available in the next few weeks."

"Ah yes, formalization. I was about to get to that. The Head Primarch is willing to meet up personally, actually. He's hoping that a personal appearance by himself would be a sign of trust between our two states." Quentius informed the ambassador as he pulled out some files for her to read. "These are some of our requirements if you wish to host the Hierarch."

Goyle took out her reading glasses and went over the details. After a couple minutes skimming through the admittedly rough translation from Lativish to English, she put it down.

"Just from eyeballing it alone, the requests are reasonable. Tell your Primarch we can have the necessary preparations ready in 3 to 4 weeks." She said as she stood up. The captain followed suit and shook her hand. The ambassador showed him out and they both exited the room.

 **-000-**

 _ **Galactic News Updates:**_

 **Citadel Central Broadcasting:** Today's Frontline update unfortunately brings no better news; the war has stagnated yet again as Turian and joint Council forces have fought to a virtual standstill. Allied forces have struggled to beat back Hierarchy troops, but have settled for a stalemate at the moment.

 **Hierarchy Official News:** Progress in the 2nd phase of the Tor offensive is going well according to plan as Hierarchy forces bleed the Council dry out of its will to fight. High Primarch Fedorian has recently announced that the tides of conflict will soon be turning to the Hierarchy's favor, though details are still classified. More info on this will arrive this weekend so stay tuned for more.

 **Colonial News Center:** A possible armistice with the alien menace, and a strange ally arriving at the nick of time. Keep watching here on CNC Prime Time for more details. Anonymous details from Eden Prime has shed some light about the mysterious VIP that has been residing in the New Canaan Near Orbital Housing Station. Said individual is an Alien political agitator currently under employment of the ACI. The alien in question, a human sympathizer who is a member of their elite ruling class, is reportedly cooperating with the Alliance to install a pro-human government in charge of their own race. Our contact wasn't able to divulge anymore information on the subject, but was able to shed light on the reports of unidentified spaceships spotted over Eden Prime a during the Alien attack. The contact reports that the unidentified ships were indeed Aliens as many had believed. The Aliens were of a different race than the ones attacking and claimed that they too were at war with the offending Aliens. Leaked footage from the battle will tell us more about these new mysterious players…

 **-000-**

 **A/N:**

 **Finally finished with this one. I'll say, I wasn't expecting so much support from you guys, I even have my own bouts of self doubt every now and then, so these positive feedback does help me keep pushing. I do however would ask for some more critical feedback. English being my second language leaves plenty room for improvement grammar wise. Please, don't be afraid to tell me where I've made grammatical mistakes, it'll only benefit us both to improve my writing.**

 **Also, I'll admit I was running low when it comes to ideas when I started this chapter. Those who've played or watched the source material will know where I lifted Kuril's waking up scene from. It's not my best piece of writing, but I'm not gonna take it back anytime soon.**

 **It's almost the end of the month and since it's likely I won't be updating until next month, I feel like sharing the story's statistics with y'all, just to show how it's performing right now. As of 09:07 PM April 23 2018, Mass Effect: The Great War is at 41,954 views. For April alone, viewers from the US make up 2.1k views at 504 visitors, followed by the UK at 535 views at 118 visitors, and then Canada, Germany, and Australia. Seems like a disproportionately high amount of my viewers are American, I'm not sure why there are so many Americans reading my story compared to other countries, but hey, I ain't complaining.**

 **So, thanks for reading guys, review or message me what I think, and enjoy the rest of your day.**


	22. Trouble in the Backyard

" _War is dirty, damn right it is. That fact is the exact reason why we simply cannot fight this war fair. If you expect a war to be fair, you've got a whole world of hurt coming for you."_

 ** _Supreme Commander of the Alliance, Jonathan J. Shepard, in an address to the public, 2272._**

 **-000-**

 ** _Volgograd, Russian Federation, Earth, August 29, 2192._**

Earth, the cradle of Human civilization. For centuries innumerable, Humans have been confined to this small bit of rock. Some have cited this fact as the sole reason that our species have not unleashed are true destructive potential. This opinion seems to hold through, as man's blind rage seems to have been unleashed so thoroughly upon the first spaceborne conflict. For now Humanity is now no longer tied to a single world for its existence, and now is capable of unleashing a fire and fury unlike they themselves have ever seen.

Here, in the historical city Volgograd, more infamously known by its previous name, Stalingrad, a clash between Humans is proceeding. In the memorial plaza remembering the battle that had happened over two centuries ago, protests and demonstrations from two factions.

On one end, the Anti-War protestors, who support arming the Free Batarian Movement. These people have seen the ugly face of war, and are calling for the immediate cessation of conflict between the two states.

On the other end of the street, the Pro-War supporters, against the arming of the Batarian Insurgents. These are the people who have fought 'The Good Fight' and still want the fight to be continued.

And watching the two face off? Joint Russian-Alliance security forces trying to hold off the two sides from further escalation. Both sides have already started pushing against each other in the center of the plaza.

" **STAND BACK, FURTHER AGGRESSION WILL NOT BE TOLERATED!"** A Russian security officer shouted over the mic.

Armored vehicles sporting riot equipment idled by the sides, preparing to intervene when necessary.

Here in his childhood home, Petrovsky watched as the two sides bear down upon each other. He could've done something to help, he should've done something to help. It wasn't his business though. He was here to meet his Mama.

Turning from the city center, he took the train and left for the city's suburbs. On his stop, a man limping with a walking stick was waiting to pick him up.

"Nikolai, it is good to be back!" Oleg greeted his brother in Russian.

"Ahah, it is good indeed, brother!" Nikolai returned.

The two brothers hugged for a while, laughing. They separated themselves as Nikolai led his elder brother to his car. Getting into the passenger seat, Oleg found it amusing that his brother's ancient bobblehead collection has only grown since the last time he rode this car.

"Niko, how is Mama?" Oleg asked as his younger brother entered the car on the driver's side.

"Mama is good. The we've seen better times, but we'll make it through." Niko said as he began driving the car. "She will be glad to see you back."

The drive back home was quiet, with little interaction between the siblings. Oleg had fallen asleep, and Niko felt that it was a rest his brother deserved. Oleg had been in the front, Oleg had been shot at, Oleg has lost his brothers-in-arms.

Niko hasn't.

He thanked heavens for not putting him through such pain, yet also cursing it for depriving him of the ability to fight.

Looking at his brother, he is reminded of his Mama, of his family.

' _Maybe I'm not meant to fight…'_

 **-000-**

 ** _Qing Conservation Park, Shanxi, August 30, 2192._**

" _Christ's sake boss, we've been goin' round in circles for ages! What're we looking for anyways?"_ Vickers said through her radio.

Williams sighed as he resisted the urge to face-palm.

"Be patient Vickers, we'll find it when we see it."

They continued on like this for a while, patrolling the park for the Human Resistance, or Batarian Turncoats.

It wasn't long after that when Williams finally spotted signs of anything other than endless forests.

An abandoned recreational center, almost dilapidated, and heavily damaged.

' _No better spot for a hideout, or and outpost.'_ Williams thought to himself. The captain picked up his radio and spoke to the rest of his tank platoon.

"Can all of you see those buildings over there?" He said.

" _Aye, looks like a good place for anybody to set up."_ Vickers replied.

" _We better stay sharp boss, there's no telling what's waiting for us down there"_ Rodriguez added.

"Just what I was thinking. Vickers and Rodriguez, you move in ahead, Jareau, Find a nice position and provide overwatch. I'll be backing up the APCs as they deploy the grunts."

A chorus of affirmatives followed as the tank platoon and the infantry accompanying them did as ordered.

The two light tanks arrived in the rec-center's parking space, with Vickers moving around, surveying the rest of the area. Williams and the APCs arrived a few minutes later as the marine grunts deployed from their vehicles. They grunts fanned out and secured the buildings around, finding nobody around.

" _The place is clear, no four-eyes around!"_ the marine leader said.

Williams sent his confirmation and now assumed a more relaxed position.

The marine leader radioed in again.

" _You know captain, it's getting real late, and this is as good a spot to rest up as any."_

Williams contemplated this for a while. The area was cleared by the marines, so he figured that it was secure. He didn't see any fault in setting up in the rec-center.

"You know what? You're right. Tell the boys were bunking down over here." He replied to the marine leader.

And so they did. The group set up camp for the night, ready to rest. A fire was started to cook some food. The Marines relaxed as the sun went down, with only a few staying up to watch for trouble.

One such group of Marines were posted by a wall watching the south side. Late into the night. Williams was checking up on them at the current moment,

"How are you folks faring?" He asked.

"We'll manage, Captain." The squadleader said.

The Marine in the rear, closest to the wall, tired from the several day's worth of movement and action, let himself lean into the wall. Little did he know of the implications of such a simple action.

The wall behind him crumbled as it revealed a hidden room. As the Marines reacted to the false wall falling apart, the dust settled and revealed a dozen and a half Batarians hiding in their hidden room. Both sides quickly took their weapons and shouldered it, pointing at their respectives enemies. The two clashing troops tried to shout the other down. Their fingers were close to pulling the trigger, all they would need to start out the bloodbath was a simple snap.

The air began to grow in it's tension and the sheer hecticness that was the situation. All until one man's piercing voice cut through everything.

"All you Idiots, stand down!" A clear, Brooklyn accent exclaimed from the Batarian side, stopping the shouting through sheer confusion alone.

A bearded man wearing a blue Alliance Marine beret stepped out from the dilapidated building and in between the two sides.

"You trying to get all of yourselves killed?" He shouted again as he pushed down some of the Marine's rifles.

Williams, finally recognizing the man in front of him asked a question he didn't think he'd be asking for a long time.

"Dad, is that you?" He asked.

The older Williams looked past the Marines and grinned.

"Yeah, it's me you dit. Now tell these monkeys to stop pointing their guns at me!"

 **-000-**

 ** _Kansas, USA, May 6, 2218._**

"God dammit son, you are not joining the military!"

The father/son debate was turning into a full-blown argument as both elder and younger stood up at the respective challenges. The son, unwilling to back down, countered his father.

"I am not a kid anymore Pa, I can make my own damn decisions now! Might I remind you I'm a legal adult now? I am not bound by your damn decisions anymore!" the son all but shouted.

The mother, calmly watched from the sidelines. She herself was, and still is to a certain extent, a part of the Alliance military. She wanted to back up her son but couldn't find a way to intervene properly without escalating the situation.

Both father and son continued their fight, yet the only thing she could see from it was how similar the two of them are. Certainly, the fruit didn't fall far from the tree.

The fight seemed to escalate from merely raising their voices to full blown shouting. She decided that she had to step in before things got out of hand.

"I swear to God, you two are giving me a headache." She said loudly from where she was seated.

"Only because Pa's being too much of a jerk! Come on Ma, back me up here!" The son said. His striking blue eyes being her own, she couldn't help but want to take his side.

"Don't bother Ilsa, you know what happened to _my_ Pa, hell even my own damn brother in that 'Great' war. I am not letting that happen to Joey too!" The father answered.

"You always bring that up when I talk about this! Times are different Pa, we're not at war anymore." The son, Joey, his father called him, countered.

"Then what point is there to enlist? What the hell do you think you're gonna find there boy? Adventure, Glory? You're never going to find it there. Only death, despair, and destruction." The father pointed out. "If you want to help out, working in the farm helps plenty enough."

Joey just waved off his father and stormed off to his room. It was clear to him that his father wasn't willing to listen and decided that it wasn't worth arguing anymore.

"That boy, I have no clue where he gets that attitude!" the elder man huffed out as he sat down beside his wife.

"You know hun, I know a man who's a hard head that happens to be Joey's father." Ilsa said.

"haha, very funny." He simply returned.

"Seriously Robbie, Joey as some solid points. He's not a kid anymore, like it or not, our son can make his own choices now." She said as she took out a book from the table close to her and started flipping through pages.

"Does it matter if his choices are going to get him killed?" Robbie replied.

"Now you're just being paranoid! We're not fighting any wars anymore, Robbie, let him serve a tour or two and sate his need to 'help others'. When that's done and over he can come back here and be whatever else that isn't a soldier." She calmly advised. "Besides, the worst that he's probably ever going to face is some border fights with those Terminus pirates, and even then they aren't much of a threat."

"Hmm." he grunted out. "This whole ordeal is going to be the death of me…" Robbie wryly said.

 **-000-**

 **A/N: So this chapter features the first flash-forward, in which we kinda see some of the characters years after the Great war. Also this chapter should kinda start the long road for us to meet Shepard, and If you didn't catch it in the top of the page, this Shepard is going to be my own take on it. I'm gonna try to write him somewhere in between Renegade and Paragon. I find that none of the pre-built backstories Cannon-Shep has fit right with what I'm going to write. The closest one I found that works was the Colonist backstory, but that doesn't really work since I wanted Shep to come from 'nowhere' and a vengeance-esque story doesn't really sit well with me.**

 **So that kinda wraps up this chapter, sorry if it's kinda short. Anyways, leave a review of how you think things are going if you feel like it. Try to report grammatical errors if you can and I'll try to go back and rewrite them sometime soon.**

 **As always, thanks for reading, and enjoy the rest of your day.**


	23. Shadow Play

_**SSV Sunlight Yellow, September 9, 2192.**_

General Henry Williams walked into the AWACS Center (Active Warfare and Control System) and was greeted by the salute of a platoon's worth of Marines.

"As you were gentlemen." The General simply replied.

Admiral Kahoku stepped away from the holo-table and shook Williams' hand.

"General Williams, it's good to have you back." The Admiral said.

"Admiral Kahoku, I'm guessing that I've missed a lot this past year and a half?"

"Not as much as you think, if what our 'guest' says is true." Kahoku replied.

"Is that so?" Williams asked

"Yes, he's been cooperative, if rather reserved thus far. He says that you can vouch for him."

"Hmm, I probably could." Williams said as he looked around the AWACS center. "Send the files to me, I'll look over it once Armed Forces Command debriefs me fully."

As Williams turned around to exit, Kahoku interrupted him.

"I hope you know that you're playing with fire, Henry." The admiral said.

Williams chuckled a little at that.

"Trust me Tatsu, I didn't become a general without getting burned."

Having said that, the general left the room, creating an awkward silence in the AWACS Center. Kahoku realized that most of the sailors were looking at him.

"Don't just keep gawking, get back to work!"

 **-000-**

 _ **ASV Guiding Light, in orbit over Sur'kesh, September 12, 2192**_

"Sur'kesh control, this is the _Guiding Light_ , requesting permission to enter atmosphere." Aethyta announced through the communicator.

" _Copy that_ Guiding Light _, any particular reason an Asari Cruiser is attempting to land in Sur'kesh?"_ the flight control officer asked.

Tela cut her sister to answer the Salarian.

"Official SPECTRE business. SPECTRE Agent Tela Vasir, authentication code Armali-Nineteen-Eighty-Four." the younger Vasir answered.

The officer verified the codes.

" _That's an awfully polite way of saying mind your own business."_ the Salarian over the communicator joked lightly. _"You have permission to enter orbit, but I must remind you, agent, that I am legally required to inform the Dalatrasses of your arrival."_

"Understood control." Aethyta said and closed the line. She then turned to her younger sister. "I could've handled that myself you know." The elder Vasir chastised.

"We're short on time. The moment the Dalatrasses know a SPECTRE that isn't in their paybook is in Sur'kesh, they're going to be sweeping every single 'less-than-legal' activity under the rug while we're here. So we best make this quick." Tela replied.

"Fair enough." Aethyta simply answered.

The _Guiding Light_ entered the atmosphere and headed straight for its destination; an unregistered STG base in the depths of the largest rainforest in Sur'kesh.

Tela and Wrex gathered their landing party in their shuttle where the SPECTREs briefed them. Coming with them were 8 Asari commandos and a dozen Krogan Shocktroopers, all of which hand picked by their respective agents.

"Alright soldiers, here's the deal!" Wrex said, gathering attention. "We're dropping into an STG base, right here in Sur'kesh. It's a Bio-Research blacksite, this base doesn't exist officially. We suspect that there's a rogue cell operating out of it."

"Should we expect resistance?" one of the Asari Commandos asked.

"I'm guessing they're going to cover it up and send us on our way, but there shouldn't be much fighting that a quick wit and a fiery tongue can't solve." Wrex said to some of the Shocktroopers' dismay.

"Doesn't mean we should be let our guard down." Tela added. "This is still a blacksite. So keep your eye out for anything out of the ordinary."

The shuttle then shook in its previously undisturbed descent.

"What was that?!" Wrex half asked, half exclaimed.

" _We're taking fire from AA guns in that base!"_ the pilot said from her seat. _"Do we abort?"_

"Negative! These people think they'll scare us off with some puny bullets, we'll show them wrong!" Wrex answered. "Take us in close, we'll see them try to stop a Krogan air-drop."

The shuttle took a nosedive and went straight for the base. Weaving in and out, zigging and zagging, the shuttle flew through the defenses and took them straight to the base's courtyard. Once hovering only a few meters off the ground, the shuttle doors opened letting Wrex and his Shocktroopers jump off. Each Krogan landed with a loud thud, each one seemingly getting louder and louder. The Krogans shouldered their rifles aimed it at the STG operatives that had begun flooding the courtyard in scores.

The Commandos jumped in afterwards to back up the Krogans, though Tela stayed aboard trying to communicate with the _Guiding Light._

"Lay down your weapons on the ground and get on your knees!"The STG commander leading the defense force demanded.

"The only place we'll be shoving our weapons is up your ass! We're SPECTREs, we have it on the Council's authority to be here!" Tela shouted from the shuttle, broadcasting her SPECTRE credentials via omnitool.

"We've heard that before, and we aren't falling for it twice. GET ON YOUR KNEES NOW!" the Commander demanded once more.

With things seemingly escalating even further, Tela shouldered her own weapon and aimed for the enemy from the shuttle. Wrex himself had his finger already lightly squeezing the trigger, ready to fire whenever.

Just as things were about to blow up, another Salarian ran in with his omnitool lit up shouting at everyone.

"Stand down! Stand down! Their codes are authentic, these ones are real!" the Salarian shouted.

"Are you _sure_?" the commander asked.

"I wouldn't have ran out here if I thought they would _kill us._ " the Salarian engineer said as he showed the commander the credentials on his omnitool.

The commander started reviewing the credentials, and in the midst of that, the Salarian troops started easing up and relaxing a little. After a few minutes, the commander spoke again.

"Stand down soldiers, these people are authentic." he said.

The Salarian soldiers now lowered their weapons, no longer threatening the SPECTRE agents in their base.

"Apologies for the improper welcome, agents. We've had issues with spies using false SPECTRE credentials recently. We're on edge, is all." the Commander explained.

"You're just doing your job Commander, but hopefully you won't jump the gun so early next time." Tela said as she dismounted from the shuttle. "I want a full run down on what's being done here. If we have spies running around with fake SPECTRE credentials, I want to know why they're doing it here."

The group now exited the courtyard and entered the base proper.

"I'd stay and explain, but we have other security issues at the moment. Lieutenant Valern will have to take it from here." the commander said before leaving.

Valern, the Salarian that defused the previous situation, stepped up and led the group to the elevator down.

"Valern." Tela said.

"SPECTRE, good that you received my message." Valern stated.

"So he's your insider here?" Wrex asked.

"Yes, I approached agent Tela with information about some very suspicious bioweapons research being done here." Valern answered.

"I thought 'suspicious bioweapons' are a regular thing for Salarians." Wrex inquired.

"It would be, if the Dalatrass Circle authorized it. In this situation, it wasn't."

"So who did?" Tela then inquired.

"That's the question we're all asking." Valern answered. "Even though this research is likely unauthorized, a lot of people are turning a blind eye to it. Powerful people no less."

The lift stopped and opened to reveal massive lab with plenty of instruments. Salarians left and right are rushing around, doing their job. Valern led through the circus that was the facility and into another section of the labs.

"Head down this hallway and take a right, afterwards keep going until you reach Section 4-Z. I can't be seen leading you there." the Lieutenant said finally. "Good Luck."

The SPECTREs nodded and went off as directed. Reaching Section 4-Z, they were halted by security guards.

"This section is restricted to class-5 personnel only." one of the guards said.

"We have SPECTRE clearance. Let us through." Wrex informed the guards.

"No can do, get clearance, then we'll let you through." one of the guards said, challenging the agents.

"You do understand that we could have you arrested for obstruction of SPECTRE operations, right?" Tela then said.

The guard simply replied.

"We have our…"

A loud crash was heard throughout the facility, followed by a large tremor that shook the buildings to its foundations.

"What was that?" Wrex asked.

 _ **Meanwhile…**_

" _Preliminary bombardment complete, Operation Stinging Truth is now live!"_

A voice on the local Blackwatch network announced.

With that, Nihlus and his team got out of the dirt and greenery of the Sur'kesh rainforest and began their attack. They ran out of the treeline and straight through a hole that one of the three stealth frigates supporting them managed to blow open.

For this operation, 5 Blackwatch squads has been assigned to it, the most in a single operation recorded thus far.

5 squads, each with their own objectives.

Squads Testudis and Scutris were assigned to distract enemy security as much as possible. The more guards hunting them, the better.

Mutis Squad was to disrupt enemy communications, they were already on their way to the base's communications array and had enough explosives to level an apartment complex.

Ephi Squad was yet another distraction. They were to make it seem like the Turians were here for military information, troop movements etc. This would draw away from their true mission here:

Pila Squad's job was finding out whatever happened to missing Turian prisoners of war.

During a POW trade deal some months ago, some 117 out of 998 prisoners were unaccounted for. The SPECTRE in charge of the trade off said that they died weeks before the deal because of a lack of Dextro medical care available.

Nobody from the Hierarchy bought into that.

Then they have it from an STG operative who was _encouraged_ give up information, that they'd find out whatever happened to the POWs starting here.

Needless to say, Blackwatch moved swiftly.

It took them awhile to get the stealth frigates and squads to pull this off in what is essentially the center of Council intelligence, but they managed to pull it off.

Nihlus took one look back at the sky and saw one of the stealth frigates zooming away with several gunships in tow. He and his squad jumped in and went down the corridor. Their tech expert, Haliat, brought up the building's schematics.

"We need to go that way." Haliat pointed.

The squad traversed the buildings avoiding STG guards where possible, and quietly dispatching them with suppressed weapons when necessary.

Finally the squad entered an empty room. Their explosives expert planted a breaching charge according to instruction as well as mounting rope harnesses to nearby walls. Dust was kicked up and sent flying as the charge blew a large hole in the floor, connecting directly to the room below. They connected a rope line on the ceiling before dropping down and opening fire to any and all Salarians inside, killing or incapacitating all of them. With green blood oozing on the floor, Haliat turned to the computers, locked down the room, then began data mining. Nihlus on the other hand opened his communications tool and listened in. Ephi squad was facing a lighter force than expected. Scutris and Testudis was doing a bang up job with the distraction, they might even pick up their secondary objective if things keep going this smoothly.

Just as Nihlus thought of that, the room's door was blasted open, when the dust kicked up by the explosion had settled down, several Asari commandos and Krogan Shocktroopers streamed into the room. One of the commando's armor had an insignia that Naval Intelligence told them to look out for in particular. The hawk wing formed out of 6 bars. The council's elite was here.

"SPECTRE!" Nihlus warned his squadmates to the gravity of their new situation.

The Blackwatch operators immediately ducked into cover as a hail of Mass Effects propelled lead rained upon them. Nihlus pulled out a grenade disk and threw it at the commandos' general direction, forcing them into cover. Using the distraction, the team's LMG operator deployed her weapon and began suppressing fire. With the commandos mostly pinned down, Nihlus and another operator slid around and took up flanking positions near the Shocktroopers. Using their new advantage, they too suppressed the SPECTRE's forces, evening the playing field somewhat.

"Haliat, how much longer is that download?" Nihlus asked out loud between gunfire.

"It should be done any second now!" Haliat shouted out his answer.

Right as he spoke, a loud ping rang out and notified Pila squad that the download was complete.

"That's about it." Haliat said as he made a dash for the console.

Nihlus and the other operators threw out a volley of smoke grenades to obscure the enemy's line of sight. Haliat took the data drive he plugged in earlier and quickly skimmed through the data.

"Ephi Squad, do you copy?" Haliat asked on the communicator.

" _Copy that Pila Squad. What do you need?"_ their squad leader replied.

"I need you to pick up an HVT at these coordinates." Haliat said, sending the coordinates.

" _How important is this HVT that we're diverting my squad for it?"_

"This has everything to do with our missing POWs, and likely runs deeper." Haliat answered.

After some brief discussion on the other end, Ephi Squad's leader answered.

" _Affirmative Pila Squad, diverting now."_

With the smoke slowly dissipating, Pila squad quickly climbed up the line they had and then quickly cut it off, throwing a hurdle on the pursuing SPECTRE forces. Now with the data drive, Pila squad made a break for their exit.

Getting the notification that Pila Squad had finished their objective, Squads Testudis and Scutris began pulling back and out of the engagement. They left a few drones to shoot at the Salarian guards and cover their retreat.

With their leftover explosives, Mutis squad blew another hole in the outer wall and jumped out into the Sur'kesh rainforest. All the squads would drop out of the grid and rendezvous in a predesignated location after exfiltrating the area of operation.

 _ **Later…**_

It was now midnight. Pila and Mutis Squad had already been waiting in the rendezvous point for a few minutes now. Testudis and Scutris squads had just arrived and basically collapsed onto the ground. This was understandable to Nihlus, after all the two squads fought off almost an entire company's worth of hostiles just several hours ago. Now they were just waiting for Ephi squad, who had gone to fetch whatever HVT Haliat told them of.

Nihlus approached the tech expert to ask about it. Said tech expert seemed to be in deep thought at the moment.

"So, you still haven't told me what you sent Ephi squad after." he asked.

This seemed to have shaken Haliat a little.

"I… I can't find the words to explain it." Haliat answered, stuttering a little. Clearly whatever it was shook the tech expert's core.

"It's…" Haliat tried to say but his gaze moved away from Nihlus and onto the forest behind him.

The rustling of leaves and plants alerted the Blackwatch operators and they quickly drew their weapons on the noise's general direction.

Out of the shadows appeared Ephi squad, one of which was carrying a body that was clearly Turian. Haliat got up and approached the newly arrived squad.

"Is that him?" he asked the squad leader.

"It's a _her._ " the leader replied, dropping the body.

Upon closer inspection, it was clearly a female Turian, but her body was radically deformed, with limbs either growing too long, shriveled up, or just looking _wrong_. Blue lines raced up and down her body, unnatural blue lines which disgustingly enough, looked like wires. She was breathing, but she wasn't reacting to anything. Her eyes had an empty gaze in her, and her expression would convince someone she was simply an empty shell. It was alive but it wasn't _'alive'_ so to speak.

"Phaeston preserve us. Who was she?" Nihlus said.

"Nobody." Haliat answered, to the other's confusion. "She looks Turian, definitely Turian in DNA, but from what little I've read so far, she never came from one of us."

"What in damnation is that supposed to mean?!" Ephi Squad's leader half asked, half exclaimed.

"What I'm saying is, those sick Salarian fucks grew _her in a vat_."

 **-000-**

 **A/N:**

 **Dun dun duuun. So there it is, the third party that is going to fuck stuff up big time in the future. If you're worried that it's another sub-story unimportant to the main plot, trust me, it'll come back to bite everyone's asses. I'll try to explain more next chapter, speaking of which.**

 **I'm really sorry for taking so long to update, I got drafted into an internship by my Dad and barely had any time to write. Hopefully I can write down another chapter before middle august (which is when I start Uni).**

 **Basically put, over the next few chapters I'll be kicking off the Batarian civil war, around the same time the** _ **official**_ **first contact with the Turians, afterwards with the Council.**

 **As always, thanks for reading, and enjoy the rest of your day.**


	24. Tip of the Iceberg

_**Arcturus Station, The Silver Office, September 22, 2192.**_

"You are live in 3… 2… 1…"

In times of war like these, it was important for the people to remember exactly why the war was being fought in the first place. The people need words of encouragement to keep them pushing, fighting, to keep the war effort going. That's exactly why President Harper insisted in his weekly addresses to the Alliance public, which both allowed him to bypass corporate media and interact directly with those that voted for him in the first place. It also helped that he used to be a media magnate in his time.

"Good morning, people of the Alliance. This is Presidential Address for September 22, 2192, week 364 of the war so far. And to address the first question right off the bat, we _do_ have plans to deal with the Batarian Hegemony. We understand that the public requires some sort of idea about these matters, but resorting to leaking sensitive war information is not how it is supposed to be done."

Behind the scenes, the President's senior staff watched him work his charismatic media magic.

"So, with that out of the way, I can now announce some excellent news. As of yesterday, all remaining Batarian forces in Shanxi has surrendered and given up their arms. With the planet back under our control, we can finally start reconstruction properly. We have a few companies already under contract to help the effort, and we will leave a link to their websites for those who wish to volunteer."

The President flipped through a few pages of things he _should_ be reading off of, but never does, to the horror of his PR manager.

"We've recently christened a new Dreadnought a few days ago, you may have seen it in the news. But for those that would prefer a more reliable news source, the new ship will be named _Power and Grace_ as voted by the public 3 weeks ago. The ship's actually rolling off of the Drydocks half a week ahead of schedule. Things are looking up for our new shipyards." Harper said as a videos of the ship rolling off the Drydock was shown on screen.

He then went on to talk about several other subjects, like arms and munitions productions, a new eezo refinery being constructed in orbit over Elysium, as well as a new model of tanks to replace the aging Mattis class MBT. With all that said and done, he answered a few questions before making the next massive announcement. Reciting a speech he had written some few hours ago, he began to speak.

"My fellow Alliance citizens, as we approach the 7th year of our war, we must look back through time and reflect upon ourselves, and upon our nation. For while our Alliance is still young, it has stood through some of the toughest challenges known in our history. So when I look back at our short history as a united state, I can't help but feel proud that we've progressed from a house divided, to one that stands together against all odds. Standing together, I believe, is the most important thing for us to do, now and into the future. For events out of our control have shown, that our race is not alone in this vast universe. Not only alone, as recent happenings have shown that we are just one, out of dozens in this seemingly shrinking galaxy. Events have transpired and brought to us a new revelation."

The President took off his glasses for dramatic weight.

"We are not alone in our fight."

 **-000-**

 _ **Sahrik Military Base, Taetrus, September 26, 2192.**_

"So doc, what is she?" Nihlus asked the medical office who just finished examining the Vat grown Turian they had taken from Sur'kesh.

The Doctor just shook his head as he removed the medical gloves from his hands.

"In short? a monster." He said. "I wouldn't want to bore you with the details as I doubt you'd understand."

"Try me doc, I was in med-school before getting drafted." Nihlus replied.

"Well, that's a surprise. We don't get much of that around here. Well, save for her at least." he said as he pointed to the vat grown Turian in the isolation lab. "Well, she's definitely vat grown. We can't find any of her parent's DNA traces, which is almost always found in in all Turian's skin. The deformities seem to be caused by direct implementation of some sort of gene modification and not a side effect of her being vat grown."

"So the Salarians could be growing perfectly fine Turian mimics then?" Nihlus asked. "That'll spell a security disaster for us!"

"True, but it seems our mimic's absent-mindedness is a side effect of being vat grown. My observation and studies conclude that her mind's growth was hemmed in because of her essentially being forced into adulthood. Without the proper neural connection with parents during the incubation process, the brain would not be able to connect into the nervous system properly, nor expand it's cerebral capacity, forcing her into a mindless state where her brain can barely process anything."

"So she's a vegetable?" Nihlus commented.

"In layman's terms, yes." the doctor answered. "though in theory, they could get around that if they took a longer time growing the mimics, as well as introducing a synthetic matriarch."

"Making a hypothetical vat grown mother for the vat grown baby, it'll work. It could work; the issue is making the synth-mom, as they'd have to go through the same issue that they're trying to solve." Nihlus clarified.

"Spot on once more, operator Kryik. I see that 16 years of violence haven't dulled your medical knowledge whatsoever."

"Yeah, I just haven't been able to flex it for a while." Nihlus sheepishly replied.

"Then let's consider that a warm up." The doctor remarked. He then brought a datapad with all his reports on it. "Tell me operator, what do you see?"

"Lots and lots of cybernetics, neuro-mechanical wires and… are those synthetic cells?" Nihlus asked for confirmation.

The doctor switched pages on the datapad and showed the next section of his findings.

"I thought so too, but I took a blood sample to try and confirm my suspicions and found out otherwise. They weren't synthetic cells, they're…"

"Really obtrusive cybernetics at a molecular level." the Blackwatch operator said, cutting off the doctor.

"Bluntly put, yes. And even worse, it seems to be secreting some sort of substance that's subtly modifying her genes. I can't tell how extensive the modifications are at the moment, but what I can tell is its using extremely advanced technology. We're talking decades, maybe even centuries ahead. How the Salarians managed to develop these are beyond me." the doctor explained.

"This… is quite disturbing. Any of that data we brought back helped you find out where it came from?" Nihlus now asked.

"Unfortunately no. The data seems to refer to files not included in the ones we have. I'd suggest trying to go hunting for the data, but considering that the STG and the SPECTRE Corps are going to be in high alert… I think we should wait for things to calm down a bit."

"Unfortunately so." The Blackwatch operator simply said.

 **-000-**

 _ **Meanwhile, Somewhere in Terminus...**_

"Saleon, are you deaf!? They have a sample of what we're doing! Keeping it up at this rate is going to get us found out, let alone increasing the frequency of your experiments!" Kangl practically shouted at the scientist.

"All the more reason to pick up the pace of operations. We need to be able to use the weapon _and_ mass produce it effectively before we are discovered. As I have told you before Kangl, how I deal with my subjects are none of your concern." Saleon said as he brushed of the fuming Salarian.

" _It is_ my concern when how you deal with your subjects threatens our security!" Kangl said, barely avoiding slamming the table with his fist.

" _For once, I agree with Kangl."_ An elder Salarian female said.

"But Dalatrass!" Saleon objected.

" _My word is final, Saleon. You will reduce the frequency of your operations until I deem it is safe to resume the standard operations."_ the Dalatrass said through the encrypted voice line.

"I… I understand, Dalatrass." Saleon replied weakly.

" _In the meantime Doctor, I have some other assignments for you. Kangl, you are dismissed. I require to discuss this with the good doctor in private."_

Kangl excused himself and left. He walked to his room and entered it, locking the door behind him. Sitting down on his desk to finish up some paperwork, he was interrupted by a call on his omni-tool. Upon finding out who was calling him, he quickly scrambled to hide anything that potentially looked dangerous or classified. Kangl then answered the call.

" _Hi dad!"_ a little Asari greeted enthusiastically.

"Hey there, Meela, how was the field trip?" he asked, putting a smile on his face.

" _I haven't gone yet. The field trip starts tomorrow and mom promised me I could call you with her omni-tool before I go to bed."_

"Well that's very nice of your mother. Are you going to bed soon?" he asked his daughter.

" _Yes."_ she answered.

"Well I hope you get good rest then, it's important for you to rest up for your trip!" he then told her.

" _Aww… but I want to talk to you!"_ she pouted out.

"Yes, yes, I would like to too, but you have an important day tomorrow, and if you don't get enough rest, you won't be able to enjoy it all!" Kangl reminded his daughter.

" _Oh OK dad."_ the little Asari replied.

"Kiss your mom good night for me, and don't close the call yet!" he said. Kangl could see the feed change from an image of her face as his daughter ran through the house to give her mother

" _Mom, dad says he wants to talk to you!"_ she was excitedly said.

After handing over the omni-tool and exchanging pleasantries, Meela left and went to her room.

" _You look exhausted."_ The elder Asari said, more stating than asking.

"You could say that. It's been a long week, especially considering we had a security breach some time ago." Kangl explained.

" _Is this connected to that Turian attack at Sur'kesh?"_ His wife asked.

"It's… complicated." He deflected.

" _Aren't all Salarians?"_ she then mused, eliciting a laugh from the Salarian on the other end. _"Meela misses you, you know?"_ she then added.

"I know… It's hard to make time to visit. Her birthday is in 3 or 4 months, isn't it? Maybe I can get permission to visit then." Kangl suggested.

" _Actually, it's next month."_ She corrected.

"Oh. Time flies I guess."

" _You_ will _visit, ok?"_ His wife practically ordered.

"I will, I will." He answered. Knocking on the door alerted Kangl that someone wanted to speak to him. "We'll have to talk again later. Work, as usual."

" _Alright love, take care."_

"Good night Rana." Kangl bid farewell before closing the line.

Getting up from the table, the Salarian officer went to the table and opened his door. It was Saleon waiting outside.

"What do you want, Saleon?" Kangl asked.

"More of what I _need_. Arrange a security detail; I'll be making a trip off planet."

"Where to?"

"That is none of your concern." Saleon deadpanned.

"It is when you're taking _my_ soldiers away from to do whatever you're doing which are not going to be _my_ orders." The Salarian officer challenged.

"The Dalatrass will hear of you challenging her authority!"

"The Dalatrass will hear the same thing I told you. Either give me details, or you get nothing." Kangl ended the conversation by closing the door and locking it behind him. Potentially challenging the Dalatrass' authority is a massive risk, but he's already getting sick of everything that's been going on lately.

Hell, he just wants to go home and have this war over with.

 **-000-**

 _ **HNS Magnus Imperatri XII, In orbit over Alpani, September 27, 2192.**_

The _Magnus Imperatri_ lineage of Dreadnoughts had always served as the flagship of the Turian Hierarchy's Navy. So it seemed fitting that when (formal) first contact was about to happen, the _Magnus Imperatri_ was the ship to be bringing the High Primarch there. With the High Primarch, was Ambassador Nyx of the Diplomaticorps, as well as representatives of the Turian Dominions. With all the important political personnel present, they gathered on the bridge, where Fedorian gave a speech. Said speech was being broadcasted throughout Hierarchy space.

"Soldiers, Sailors, and fellow members of the Hierarchy; in a short few moments, we will be going through one of the most pivotal moments of perhaps our entire existence. It is important, for us as a commonwealth of nations and races, that we bring this Systems Alliance into our sphere of influence! It is important, lest the galactic newcomers fall into the clutches of the Citadel Council, and their backhanded and scheming ways."

Fedorian let the weight of what he had said settle in for a few seconds.

"These people we have discovered are an industrious people, who value hard work, and the truth. The Truth! It is what is lacking in this massive galaxy. For everywhere we look, every corner we turn, we are confronted with dishonesty, with lies, and moral bankruptcy!"

The High Primarch had to hand it to his head of propaganda, that man knew how to write a powerful speech.

"So while it may be important to ask whether some cluster or system belongs to the corrupt and manipulative Council, let us ask a more important question: does the future belong to the honorable, hardworking people of the Hierarchy?"

Some yells of agreement were heard from the small crowd that had gathered in the ship's bridge.

"Therefore this task of mine, of _ours_ , is to invite the Human race into our fold; to form a bulwark against Citadel Totalism, for only by stopping the Council's hordes can we stop the strangling of the truth, justice, and the traditions we all hold dear! Make no mistake, our goal in this war is no longer to bring those few who shield criminals from rightful justice, neither is it the protection of one mere state, but the safeguarding of all the free nations of our galaxy and thereby the salvation of all! May the Spirits guide us in our struggle."

Cheers and clapping flooded the bridge as the High Primarch finished his speech. The bridge was eventually cleared by the ship's garrison, and all the crew were sent back to their stations. The _Magnus Imperatri_ 's navigator confirmed that trajectory was on course, and the bridge-captain ordered them to activate the Mass Relay leading into Alliance territory.

The die has been cast. For better or for worse, the galaxy will never be the same again.

 **-000-**

 _ **Galactic News Update:**_

 **Colonial News Center:** Several surprises were revealed in President Harper's public address this morning, the least of which was the existence of more than a dozen other races, inhabiting our galaxy. One such race is set to make an appearance in Arcturus station _very_ soon. Details of our upcoming guest are as follows…

 **Hierarchy Official News:** High Primarch Fedorian has recently left Hierarchy space for the first time since his tenure as Grand Marshall of the Hierarchy. The High Primarch hopes to bring the Human people into what he calls 'A Bulwark against Council Totalism'. While political observers may be skeptical about the Human Race's willingness to join our side, we must keep in mind that the Humans are a completely new species, and is by its very nature Alien to us. While many would draw the physical similarities between the new Humans and the Asari, it still remains to be seen how this new galactic player acts in the field.

 **Tuchanka Federal News:** Once again displaying their cowardice, the Turians launched yet another secret raid on Council territory. This time, they launched their heinous attack in one of the hearts of Council civilization: the Salarian homeworld of Sur'kesh. Using their underhanded methods, the cowardly Turians snuck several ships through the Mass Relay network and savagely struck several military bases in cradle of Salarian civilization. Had it not been the timely arrival of SPECTRE agents Tela Vasir and our own Urdnot Wrex to lead the defense, there's no telling if the Turians would have started bombarding civilian housing. Said SPECTRE agents are said to be receiving commendations from the Dalatrass Circle of the Salarian Union sometime soon, to reward their bravery in defending the Salarian homeworld.

 **-000-**

 _ **Author's Notes:**_

 **I got a few slow days on my internship and decided to write this while waiting. If things keep up the way it is, I might be able to make a few more rapid-fire updates.**

 **So I've started watching some documentaries of both World Wars in my spare time, as well as binge watching** _ **The Great War**_ **Youtube channel. It got me to realize that I've been slacking way too much in regards of the political sphere. I mean, I did mention them every once in a while, but they've always been as a 'side dish' to the 'main course'. While I've been touching the political section a bit more, I hadn't realized how much it really should've mattered to the story. This is why I'm going to be going a lot more in depth in the different political systems of the different races.**

 **Also, some of you may remember that in Chapter 21 (Know Thine Enemy) I wrote that Quentius found it questionable on moral grounds that the Alliance was teaming up with the Batarians. While I originally wrote this down as him seeing things with his worldview, I've decided to expand this as the influence of war propaganda, something that we'll be seeing a lot more of soon.**

 **If you guys can think of any way I can improve, let me know. I'm generally open to suggestions, those that are within reason at least.**

 **As always, thanks for reading, and enjoy the rest of your day.**


	25. Politicking

_**Diplomaticorps Chambers, HNS Magnus Imperatri XII, en route to Arcturus Station, September 28, 2192.**_

Over the years, several minor races had been annexed or picked up by the Hierarchy, much to the anger of the Citadel Council. These races became the Dominions, smaller states within the Hierarchy, yet still recognized as equals among each other. Every Drell, Elcor, Raloi, or Vorcha who chose to leave their homeworld stood as much odf a chance to rise through the meritocracy as any Turian competing in it. This is how Ambassador Leok Rivos became the representative of the Drell people to the galaxy. A deeply spirited individual from his deeply divided homeworld of Rakhana, he does everything in his power to keep his race from splintering apart for the umpteenth time. His work was recognized by the Primarchs and other representatives around him, and he received commendations after commendations. As such, he now sits at one of the most prestigious seats a member of a Dominion Race could have.

Thus, it was now his duty to travel into Alliance space and represent the Drell in formal first contact. Leok wondered what the Humans would think of him and his people. While he hadn't been born when the Turians descended from space into Rakhana to restore order, his grandfather was, and Leok vividly recalled the stories the old Drell told him, thanks in no small part to his eidetic memory.

" _They swept in from the skies, in ships we had not even begun to imagine. They saw merit in how vicious we were in combat and the ferocity in which we waged war. They awarded those who kneel before them with weapons, in the condition that we fought under their flags. The Warlords who defied them were made into examples. Drells that were loyal to the Hierarchy were armed to the teeth with Turian weapons, Turian vehicles, and were thought Turian strategies. We made short work of all that resisted the change. Then, when all that was over, they took us to the stars."_

Though he was certain that the Humans aren't as backwards now as the Drell was back in the day, he can't help but draw comparisons to the Turian-Drell first contact. The Turians were gambling on giving the Humans advanced technology in the hopes that it would give them an edge in fighting their enemies. It hadn't changed much since the old days, as eventually the Drell battalions entered the field and proved their mettle against even other Turian armies. The Drell Dominion played no small part in ending the Last Unification wars.

The ship shuddered slightly, and the loud humming of the engines had begun to die down. Leok recognized this as them exiting Mass Relay transit. Just as he had expected, an alarm went out notifying those on board that they had finished transit, and that all members of the Diplomaticorps were expected to be in the hangar.

Upon exiting his room, Leok encountered the Elcor representative, Calyn.

"Excitedly: Are you ready, Leok?" the towering Elcor asked.

"I can't say that I am. Can you?" The Drell returned the question.

"Dishonestly: Yes, I can." The Elcor answered. The Drell laughed at that.

"I guess that makes two of us, friend." Leok said. "So, have you read the first contact package we were given? What do you think about them so far?"

"Intrigued: I find these people interesting. Their industrious nature allows them to solve issues using brute force, without having to rely on their inherent physical strength." Calyn explained his thoughts. "Worriedly: Riding quadrupeds seem to be deeply ingrained in their culture." He then added in.

"I doubt that they'd want to jump onto one your people, Calyn."

The pair entered the hangar where the Vorcha and Raloi representatives were already waiting.

"Greetings representative Calyn and representative Leok." The Raloi representative, Ari'ka said.

"Representative Ari, representative Molchak, how fared your trips?" Leok asked.

"Trip was enjoyable. Food in particular, very good." The Vorcha Representative, Molchak, answered.

Leok still wondered sometimes what the Turians were thinking when they brought in the Vorcha into the Hierarchy only a few years after the Drell were inducted. While Vorcha society had progressed immensely since their savage and tribal days, traces of their old barbaric ways still remained. For example, where the Turians had their face paints as cosmetics, the Vorcha scarred their own bodies and faces to appear aesthetically pleasing to each other. They were both equals in the eyes of the law however, so it doesn't matter what the Drell thought of Vorchas, he had to work with them either ways.

What perhaps intrigued Leok much more was the Raloi and Vorcha representative's quickly formed friendship. The avian Raloi was the youngest race to join the Hierarchy at only 60 years, just a decade before the Great War started. Culturally, the Vorcha and the Raloi were polar opposites. The Raloi were a very pacifistic and conservative species which favored diplomacy over confrontation. Contrasted with the Vorcha's history of violence and warfare, nobody really thought that a Vorcha and Raloi would ever get well together.

"While I do lack the Vorcha people's ability to consume both Levo and Dextro foods, what I did end up eating was not very bad. It's impressive what the cooks can do in such a short amount of time." Ari added.

"Inquisitively: Where is the High Primarch?" Calyn asked.

"Right here, representative Calyn." A flanging Turian voice said from behind the group. They turned around, and found Fedorian approaching their group, with his elite guard flanking him. "Are you all ready to make history? Well, regardless whether or not you're ready, history waits for no one."

Fedorian motioned for the group enter the shuttle they would take the Human's station. The fairly large shuttle managed to fit the group rather comfortably, even Calyn managed to find a place for him to sit without having to squeeze himself. The shuttle took off from and headed right into the unknown, alien station. All they could do now was hope for the best.

 _ **Hangar Bay 7, Arcturus Station, half an hour later.**_

The Turian's shuttle arrived in the hangar, where a mob of journalists, reporters, as well as hundreds of curious people who had come specifically to see the aliens who had come in peace. As Fedorian stepped out immediately the crowd exploded into a roar of amazement and questions. Seven members of the Alliance Civil Protection Services stepped forward.

"Are you High Primarch Tiberim Fedorian?" The man leading them said.

"Yes, I am." Fedorian confirmed.

"Well then, I'm Colonel Alec Wilson Ryder of the ACPS. On behalf of the Human race, we welcome you to Arcturus station." Ryder said, saluting the Primarch. The six other ACPS members saluted followed suit, which was then returned by the Primarch who gave them a Turian salute. Following this, Fedorian beckoned for the other members of the Diplomaticorps to disembark from the shuttle and join him.

"Colonel Ryder, these people are my associates from the Turian Hierarchy and it's Dominions." Fedorian now said, introducing the different members of his entourage. "This is Leok Rivos, Drell representative for the Dominion of Rakhana." The Primarch said as the Drell representative stepped forward. Ryder gave the Drell a salute, which was returned with a Human salute.

Now, with heavy footsteps came the Elcor representative. Followed by the Raloi and Vorcha representatives.

"This is Odant Calyn, Elcor representative of the Dominion of Dekuuna. Behind him is Kalkandr Molchak, Vorcha representative of the Dominion of Heshtok. Last but not least is Ari'ka, Raloi representative of the Dominion of Turvess."

Now, the crowd that had been watching was thoroughly surprised. They were told that it was only the Turians arriving. There was no word about 5 different races coming in.

"Well, this is a surprise." Ryder remarked.

"This does not create issues in your plan, I hope?" Fedorian replied.

"Oh no, we just don't have enough seats in The Silver Office for all of you." Alec mused. "We'll have it all sorted out, don't worry."

The Civil Protection officers lead the political procession towards the station's tramway, which would transport them to the Silver House, the president's living space and office for other executive staff. Beside the relatively small building was the Alliance Tower, which was the home of Alliance Congress.

"This is the center of your government?" The Drell representative asked. "I believe I speak for my colleagues when I say that I expected your capital to be in your people's homeworld."

"I figured one of you would ask that." Alec said. The Colonel pulled out his phone and activated its holographic projector. He projected a 3d image in the middle of the tram baggage of a battle. In this specifically was one where different Humans, wearing different uniforms were waging war against _each other_. "No less than a decade and a half ago, we fought a war over the premise of that question. Why should we have our capital on our homeworld? Why have everything centralized in a building, filled with people not looking after our interests?"

Fedorian stood up and examined the hologram. The battle it depicted, while no doubt a dramatization of actual events, showed lines of infantry, armored vehicles, aircraft, as well as orbital platforms and starships in the far background. They were all fighting in what seemed to be a lush landscape of plains and hills. Flowers on the ground as well as bushes were what little obstructions were available for the troops in combat. Explosions and other flashy details were prevalent all around.

"This is an artist's rendition of the 2nd Battle of Midway Valley, in Terra Nova. 2177" Ryder said, explaining. "While not exactly realistic in its presentation, it does capture the scale of the chaos that happened there. I should know… I was there personally after all."

"Intrigued: You took part in this battle?" Representative Calyn asked.

"That's right. 3rd Commonwealth Army Group, 9rd Army Corps, 212th Airborne Division. I was assigned to boarding Union spaceships in support of the Marines who were stretched too far thin during the battle." Ryder walked towards the hologram and searched for something in it, when he found it, he pointed at it. "There, the _UNV Yangtze River_. It's quite an Impressive cruiser for its time. My entire company was assigned to take it out. The Union Marines holding on to it gave us a run for our money."

"Fascinating. To see ships, aircraft, armor, as well as infantry to be operating in unison on such a scale. It must have been an operational nightmare." Ambassador Nyx commented. "I don't think anybody in the Galaxy has the capability to pull off a battle of this magnitude and not have it turn into such."

Ryder let out a small laugh.

"That's quite true. Wilson over there was in the _Son of Man's_ AWACS center during that battle. He tells me that the battle was such a mess they had to micromanage platoons at times just to make sure everyone was operating according to directives." Ryder said, gesturing to one of the other ACPS officer escorting the group. "In fact, this battle was so massive that it would be what one called the deciding battle. _The Battle that Broke the Union's Back_ historians these days called it. Some 5 million men fighting over 400 square kilometers of land. It was all or nothing: winner takes all."

"I take it you won that battle?" Leok asked to make confirm.

"Well, on the surface it was a massive victory for the Commonwealth. But for that massive victory we took massive losses. Out of the 3 million soldiers we had in the field, barely a million were in any shape or form to fight by the end of it. The Union didn't have it any better though. While they did a number on us during their offensive, we managed to score harder hits during the counterattack. If we only had a third of our forces left after that battle, they had a little over a sixth." Alec explained as he switched the image to a Wikipedia page of the battle.

"Kan'air blesses you, you are quite fortunate to survive that." The Raloi representative said.

"Thank you, ma'am." Ryder thanked the bird-like alien. "It is a ma'am, right?" Ryder then backtracked.

"Yes, it is." She replied, laughing heartily, followed by the Vorcha representative.

The tram arrived in Central Station, which sat in between the Silver House, and the Alliance Tower. Upon exiting the Tram, once again the political procession was mobbed by the press. Ryder and his officers barely could hold them back, even with the assistance of the local garrison. Questions were being thrown left and right, dozens at a time. So much so that it all blended into one continuous roar.

"Alright everyone let the good alien folks pass through." Ryder ordered as he pushed through the crowd.

The group slowly waded through the crowd until they were at the safety of the Silver House's walls. Following that whole debacle, Ryder led Fedorian and his entourage towards the Silver Office, where the President was waiting. Outside the office, by the door, the Vice-President stood. Fedorian was slightly surprised at his appearance, being radically different from the mostly light skinned people he's met so far. This one had a dark brown color to his skin.

"Thank you Colonel Ryder, your men are dismissed until needed again." The Vice-President said. Ryder and his officers saluted their second-in-command and went off. "Greetings, Primarch, I'm Vice-President Godfrey Nabwana." He then greeted.

"Vice-President, it is a pleasure to meet you. When are we meeting the President?" Fedorian replied.

"Soon, he's just finishing up his meeting with High Admiral Grissom. The good Admiral insisted on delivering his strategic briefings before you arrived." Nabwana answered.

Just as he spoke, the President's door opened, revealing a uniformed man, and another one in a three piece suit.

"Thank you, Jon. You should hurry though; I have bigger fish to fry now." The man in the suit, Fedorian presumed he was the President, said to the uniformed man.

"A'ight, take care Donnie, don't be getting any alien flu or somesh… Oh, good morning." The Admiral cut himself off as soon as he saw the aliens waiting outside. He straightened his cap and offered his hand, which Fedorian shook. "I'm High Admiral Jon Grissom. However the talks go, I just want to say that the Navy's glad your people arrived in Eden Prime when they did." He then said. The Admiral gave Fedorian a pat in the back before excusing himself and leaving.

"He's… friendly, isn't he?" the Raloi representative commented once she thought Grissom was out of earshot.

"It's how he is." The VP jokingly answered. "Come on." He then beckoned in.

Inside, the President was already waiting, still on his desk signing _papers_.

"Mr. President, the delegation has arrived." Nabwana announced as he entered.

He looked up and saw the Aliens now present in his office. He stood up, revealing himself to be a rather tall fellow, even by Turian standards.

"Ah yes, good morning. I'm Donald Harper, President of the System's Alliance." He introduced, putting his hand forward, which Fedorian then took in his. "I didn't realize you were bringing friends with you, Primarch."

"I apologize if this was unexpected. I had thought that the requirements which Captian Trevanian had sent your ambassador would have informed you of it." Ambassador Nyx answered. "I believe the fault is mine."

"Ah, words were lost in translation, I'm sure. It's no big issue." Harper said as he ushered the diplomats to their seats. "I'm eager to start talks now, Primarch. Though unfortunate as it is, Ambassador Goyle won't be joining us for now; she's busy with some other tasks at the moment."

"Understandable." Fedorians said. The Turian ambassador brought out a large datapad and set it on the meeting table. A rough map of the galaxy was displayed on it. "Right now, our claimed territory is highlighted in yellow. The Council's territory in red, and what territories you have that were revealed to us are highlighted in blue. Now, I assume you understand how the Relay network functions?"

Harper silently nodded as he looked through the datapad's map.

"Then that means I don't need to explain the strategic uses of the network, especially in trade. Now first and foremost, I have come to understand the industrial capabilities of the Alliance. From the history texts that were briefed to me and by making comparisons, it seems that your race has a history of using the economy as your weapon. Looking through the publically available records that Captain Quentius had access to, we have discovered one major flaw in your industry."

"And what is that flaw, Primarch?" the President asked, leaning back into his chair.

"You lack sources of Element Zero." The Primarch stated. "The lifeblood of the space age civilization. Your race only has 3 major Eezo mines, and their production isn't enough to keep up with your factories."

"So I suppose you're willing to trade Eezo with us. What do you want in return?" Harper cut to the chase.

"In return for a steady supply of Eezo, we're requesting you to produce armaments for us."

That stopped Harper's train of thoughts in its tracks.

"You want us to be involved in your war? We can't do that." The Vice-President answered while Harper gathered his thoughts.

"If it's a problem of security, the Hierarchy is willing to extend our umbrella of protection to cover your people too." Ambassador Nyx offered. "Our military is extensive, and more than a third of it is still in reserve. We can easily move in and help secure your territory in the event of a Council attack."

"It's not about our security; our nation was born of war and it has always been a cornerstone of our politics. You've said it yourself: our industry is our greatest weapon. I'm certain we'll have enough supplies to last another prolonged total-war." Harper countered. "I, and more importantly Congress, have chosen a policy of armed neutrality in this conflict. Unless attacked first, we won't be first to strike."

"So the Eezo deal is off then?" Nyx asked.

"Not entirely off the table. Geopolitics is a long term, complicated game. If things change in the near future, we could renegotiate this deal, but right now it's a no go."

While the Humans couldn't see it, Fedorian was clearly miffed.

"Then perhaps, non-military goods could be traded?" the Turian ambassador asked.

"Yes, of course. While we can't exactly send food and other consumables for trade, we do have something you may be interested in." the Vice-President then answered.

"Continue." Fedorian simply said.

"Right, we have a miracle medicine widely in use here in the Alliance. Medigel."

"Yes I've heard of it from our soldier's reports in Eden Prime. Do tell." The Primarch urged the Vice-President.

"Medigel right now is incompatible with Turian biology. The regular variant should work on your dominions without modification, but a Dextro variant might be needed for the Turians. As reported by the South China National Science Institute, Medigel is made from chemicals easily produced in labs with the addition of several medicinal agents mixed before the refining process. The researchers at the SCNSI believe if the medicine were replaced with ones that are more suited for your biology, it would work just on you just as it worked on ours." Nabwana explained.

"What would you want in return?" Fedorian then asked.

"Monetary compensation for the license is currently improbable, so we're talking material goods in bulk. Gold, Platinum, Tungsten, whatever you people can agree with that we can sell in our markets." Harper answered.

"I see, if your Congress can approve of the deal, I'm sure the Circle of Primarchs will too." Fedorian said.

 **-000-**

 _ **Flyboat Near-Orbital Housing Station, High Seas, September 29, 2192.**_

Goyle stood near the one of the housing station's docks, looking out the windows. She had always found the slow and silent drifting of space ships soothing to her. It maybe because she was a Spacer, but this one pastime of hers had always brought her comfort, even when things are going rough.

A platoon of Marines walked up to her, escorting none other than their heir to the largest industrial manufacturing megacorporation.

"Ambassador Goyle, you seem concerned." Jarth commented.

"Going behind the Turians like this is going to bite us in the rear." She simply replied.

"If I can get a few friends to support the Free Batarian Movements from the Citadel itself, we can give the Alliance a better ground to stand on." The Batarian said. He pulled out a pack of cigarettes and lit one up, taking a long drag out of it. It was a habit that the Batarian had picked up from the Marines that was usually assigned to him. Apparently it tasted rather sweet for the Batarian tongue. Blowing off a puff of smoke, he continued. "If we pull a good impression to stand on, there's a larger chance that they'll take your race seriously. More seriously than mine, at least."

"Hey we'll knock some heads around over there… figuratively speaking." Goyle said, placing a hand on the taller alien's shoulder to reassure him.

The station's PA system called out.

" _Ambassador Goyle, your ship is ready to depart."_

"That's our call, Jarth." She said, walking away and towards the umbilical tunnel that connected to Jarth's Batarian ship. The Marines and Jarth followed suit and entered the ship where they were greeted by the all Batarian crew.

"Sir, provisions for our trip to the Citadel is already stocked, we're just waiting for the ship to finish refueling." The ship's captain said.

"Excellent, we leave the station as soon as everything is ready." The business heir ordered.

The Captain saluted his employer before returning to the post. The ship left the station several minutes later. Jarth sat on his bed and looked out the window. The Ship left and distanced itself from the Human colony High Seas, a planet with some 92 percent water covering its surface. It was a mining colony with not so many colonists living in it. High Seas was thoroughly eclipsed in population by Bekenstein, High Seas' sister colony. It had been a stroke of luck to find two habitable worlds in the same system, and the Alliance made sure to capitalize on this, settling in both planets.

The ship zoomed past the two colonies and straight towards the newly activated Mass Relay, the one that would lead them straight into Council Space.

 **-000-**

 _ **Archive Update:**_

 **History of Cipritine:** The capital and center of modern Turian society, _Cipritine_ was the most ancient and most revered city of Turian civilization. Built on the foot of the _Ciprix Mountain_ , the only way one could enter the city using conventional means of travel is to go through the _Tinios Valley_. Thus in the ancient Turian tongue, the city was named _Cipratinion,_ which translates to "Child of _Ciprix_ and _Tinios._ _Cipratinion_ became the center of a massive Turian empire which during the height of its power stretched from the seas of _Salonix_ to the deserts of _Duwanos,_ a third of the known world at the time. At the end of the Empire's reign, a coalition of 7 Nation's Army brought it to its knees and finally striking it down. Unwilling to give up their empire, the _Cipratinians_ turtled down in their city, forcing their enemies into a 5 year long siege and hoping to discourage their enemies from fighting the war. During this siege alone it was recorded that over seven hundred thousand Turians died from fighting. Had the records accounted for those who had died from the attrition and starvation caused by the siege, the death count could have risen to well over two million. After that, the _Cipratinian Empire_ collapsed and the city was abandoned. The city was often used by bandits and warlords as hideouts, but they always left no more than a month afterwards, believing them to be haunted by the Ancient Turian spirits. The territories of the former empire were divided among the seven nations.

It wasn't until thousands of years later during what historians call _The First Unification Wars_ when the First Primarch, Tiberin Thanix, was recognized as a _Magnus Imperatri_ as he established the _Nation of Cipritine_. After defeating other larger nations with his fledgling army and solidifying his reign, he turned his attention to restoring the ancient city. It was a massive undertaking, taking years, even decades of work to finally bring the city back from the ruined state it had been left on. The city was modernized with all the necessities of the time: roads for pull-carriages, smelters, theatres, gunsmiths, and everything else. Historians today link the culture of Turian militarism to the establishment of Thanix's _Nation of Cipritine_ which laid the groundwork for the city'sinfluence to grow even further than the it's ancient empire could ever dream of.

A popular quote from a historian about the _Nation of Cipritine_ which can be attributed to the current Hierarchy is that "The Primarch leads not a state with an army, but an army with a state."

 _ **A/N:**_

 **Thought it'd be interesting to touch up on Turian history. Not much into detail, but just enough to spice things up and give context to a bunch of stuff. I'm going do it to the Asari and Krogans too, but we'll see when that will pop up.**

 **So, the Batarian civil war should start next chapter, and the Humans make contact with the Council shortly after. What will happen in the immediate aftermath? Well, I guess you'll have to stick around and find out, don't you?**

 **Leave a review of what you think I can do to improve my work, it'll only benefit the both of us. As always, thanks for reading, and enjoy the rest of your day.**


	26. The Gamble

_**Culdar City, Anhur, September 30, 2192.**_

Anhur had just been relieved of Turian siege a mere few months ago. With the expulsion of the Hierarchy forces from Anhur, the Joint Citadel Fleet taskforce was recalled for other efforts in other fronts. With such damage and a practically nonexistent reconstruction effort, the planet's populace had begun boiling.

Dov'tok and his Turncoats stalked the shadowy alleys of the massive city. Their mission was to cripple the Hegemony's hold on the planet, and eventually kick off the rebellion against the Batarian elites. Right now, their movements were being masked by massive amounts of slave riots going on around the city's lower caste sector. Riots that Dov'tok and his Turncoats instigated.

The Turncoats were actually fairly popular among the slaves. But they were only spoken of in hushed tones and whispers, as any mention of them by the slaves could result in harsh punishments. Dov'tok and his allies were counting on this when they take down the consolidated military network; the same network that the slave's shock collars were all wired to. He never understood the reasoning behind that, but he thanked _Syorta_ that the Hegemony was dumb enough to connect all the slave collars to it; it made his job a hell of a lot easier after all. Using the riots as a distraction, Dov'tok and his Turncoats eventually made it to the city's military base, one which held a Ra'aksorgat Garrison. The Ra'aksorgat, which roughly translates to slave army in English, were essentially a horde controlled using some very invasive cybernetics shoved into the subject's spine and connected to the nervous system. The Batarians that thought of the idea believing that the slaves would be motivated into doing anything just to stop the pain.

' _We'll see what happens when we set them loose then.'_ Dov'tok mused.

The Turncoats scaled the wall and snuck into the barracks, blending in with the soldiers inside. With all the chaos happening all over the city, the military was being overwhelmed. This was a good thing, as it gave Dov'tok less people to deal with. They approached the base's control room and found it unguarded and proceeded to storm in. The Batarian loyalists inside didn't have enough time to react and were dispatched very quickly. The Turncoat's computer technician sat down on one of the terminals and accessed the system.

"Well, looks like that worm program we uploaded into the network back in Shanxi is still here." He said. "All I need to do is insert this line of code and…"

A loud alarm sounded throughout the base, and an alert was sent to every single Batarian soldier on duty at the time.

" **Alert: Slave Suppression systems disabled"** many soldiers would read.

Simultaneously, shock collars not only in Caldur City but also all over Anhur started deactivating themselves, unlocking and falling to the ground with a clatter.

"Glad those idiots didn't realize someone would use the network against them." Dov'tok commented. "Time to make our exit." The Turncoats discreetly left the control center before anyone realized what was going on.

The riots and chaos escalated when the slaves realized they were now free. Gunshots were heard from every corner of the city, and unfortunately for the loyalists, not all of them were Hegemony forces. The Turncoats, still disguised as Batarian soldiers, made their way towards the armory, whose guards were conveniently already dismissed. They carted with them several crates of weapons and took it to a shuttle. They escaped before anybody could do anything effective to stop them.

In the shuttle, the technician activated his omni-tool and activated the worm program again, this time opening the Ra'ak holding cells, and painting every Batarian wearing armor or uniform as their targets.

Dov'tok could barely hear the screams of terror as the horde began tearing apart the loyalists endlessly. With that, the Turncoat officer opened his omni tool and called.

"Colonel Cathka, phase one is complete, next part is up to you."

Far away, in a Cruiser of his own command, Cathka acknowledged.

"Good work Dov'tok, you've done us proud." The Colonel said.

He nodded at the ship's captain, who then sent out encrypted messages to all the other ships. Those who had the cypher with them understood the message.

It was time.

A Batarian battlegroup had been assigned to Anhur under the guise of securing the Terminus border which the Turians had used previously to attack the planet. In reality, it was to try and contain the riot-turned-uprising. Cathka had managed to pull _a lot of strings_ and got a lot of his men onto the assignment. At that moment, some thirty-odd ships turned against the loyalists ships, one of which being a Batarian dreadnought. The four cruisers closest to the dreadnought aimed their broadside cannons and began bombarding the one kilometer long ship. The dreadnought, was unprepared and therefor did not have its shields prepared. The cruisers kept bombarding the dreadnought, and what little fire that the dreadnought could dish out back was blocked by the cruiser's own shields. The Turncoat ships lacked the firepower to completely destroy a dreadnought so they settled for crippling, then ramming it into Anhur's gravity well. The massive ship, one of the Hegemony's six dreadnoughts began to burn up in atmosphere where it shattered and exploded in a blaze of fire. Further subduing of the battlegroup proved unnecessary, as most of the lesser ships forfeit the fight as soon as the dreadnought was taken out of the picture. Many of the previously loyalist ships and crew, in an act of self-preservation, defected to the Turncoats.

With the Batarian navy in the system taken care of, the Turncoats seized control of planetary communications and broadcasted a message.

"Comrades-at-arms, this is Colonel Cathka, one of the leaders of the Free Batarian Front! Today marks a change in the course of our collective history. No longer must we toil alone without assistance. Beyond our territories, allies more powerful than the Hegemony move to bring justice to the tyrants who have oppressed us for so long. Today, no longer will the rest of the galaxy watch idly from the sidelines as we march towards our freedom, we are not alone!"

This rallying cry helped to boost morale of the rebels on the ground, now with Turncoats showing up and helping to guide the revolting Batarians. The riots had stopped being chaotic acts of violence, but had become an organized act of revolution.

The Batarian Civil war had begun.

 **-000-**

 _ **The Silver Office, Arcturus Station, October 1, 2192.**_

Trade talks have… stagnated to say the least. This stagnation, in combination with Fedorian's rather impatient and impulsive nature, has led to some rather heated disputes between the President and the Primarch. Eventually, Ambassador Nyx persuaded the Primarch to take a tour of the station's many attractions as opposed to arguing further with the President. In his absence the Ambassador would take over negotiations.

"You'll have to excuse the Primarch's impatience. The Hierarchy is in some rather dire straits at the moment. He feels as if he has to shoulder the entire weight by himself, despite his staff being there to support him." The Ambassador said.

The Alliance Vice-President, Nabwana, nodded in return.

"Quite. President Harper has similar issues. He feels deeply responsible for the loss of Shanxi last year. He largely blames himself." The Vice-President explained. "The man feels like he's in over his head, and that the solution to the problems is for him to triple his own efforts. Can't say it's been very healthy for him."

"Seriously speaking though, we have a lot of Eezo to spare. The Turvessi moon is a surprisingly rich source for it." Nyx brought up, trying to bring the subject back to the arms deal."

"Trust me, both the President and I want to agree, but Congress is skeptical. On paper we have a capable military, but in reality it's not enough to fully protect our systems yet. To deal with the Batarians? More than enough, given the numbers we now have. To hold off the rest of the Allied Races? We have neither the tech, nor the numbers." Nabwana told the Ambassador.

"That's why you're inciting civil war in the Hegemony, isn't it. You need friends."

"The good Admiral prefers the term Proxy. If all goes according to plan, we'll be able to leverage the Batarians to lease us several mines in their territory which will help boost production heavily. Hell, we might be able to provide a rifle for everyone above 16, if the numbers hold up."

"Here I was thinking Humans didn't enjoy war." Nyx joked lightly.

"No, it's just the Americans." Nabwana jokingly replied. "We don't necessarily enjoy war; we love our comforts more than I would believe is healthy for our civilization. But, we won't die off if we don't have them. We'll live without creature comforts, as long as it's justified. It seems that we're quite different from these… Atari."

"Asari." Nyx corrected.

"Right, the blue people." Nabwana said.

"Well, the Asari certainly love their often luxurious lifestyle. It's probably the only reason why they're _still_ not in full mobilization, by our standards at least." The Ambassador explained about them. "Despite their massive economy, less than a fifth of it is being contributed into the war. That is by no means a small contribution however; A fifth of 980 Trillion credits is still a magnificently large number."

The Ambassador took a pause as he drank from the class of purified water the VP had provided him.

"Honestly, the only reason we're still in the fight is because the Asari despise massive, lengthy, and costly wars." He then continued.

"That explains why they were so eager to bring in the Krovers to war."

"Krogans." Nyx corrected once more.

"Yes, the dinosaurs." Nabwana joked again.

The VP seemed to go into a deep thought for a moment, before coming up with an idea.

"You know, have you ever thought of getting into bed with your enemy?" Nabwana suggested.

"Excuse me?"

"From the data that you've given us, along with your own comments and remarks, it seems that the Asari will be the first to 'break' so to speak." The VP elaborated. "If you supported their anti-war campaigners, align your propaganda and media efforts to make them seem like the good guys, it might pull the Asari economy further from the war and…"

"… drastically change the balance of power! Why didn't I think of this beforehand?" Nyx said, seemingly dumbfounded by himself.

"Perhaps you Turians need to start looking at things from a different perspective?" Nabwana then said.

"I… Yes, I think… I think we should." The Ambassador shakily said. "I think I should bring it up to the Primarch immediately. I believe he would be interested in hearing this."

The Turian stood up, shook the VP's hand quickly, and then left the room. Nabwana let out a small chuckle before pulling out his phone and calling the President.

"Harper, I think I might be on to something with the Turians. If we play this correctly, our standing with most of the galaxy is going to be rock solid." He said to his commander-in-chief.

" _Alright, we'll discuss it later during lunch. IF it's as good as you think it is we'll be securing leverage for the Alliance for a lifetime."_ The president said over the line. Nabwana then cut the call and told his secretary to reschedule several meetings over the next few weeks. He was going to have to work overtime to make sure it goes smoothly.

 **-000-**

 _ **The Citadel, October 7.**_

With his ship docking in the Citadel, Jarth and his bodyguards departed the ship and headed for the Citadel embassies on a shuttle. Of the eight guards he had with him, three were Alliance N7 operators. One of these operators was busy admiring the station.

"Christ, that's massive." One of them said.

"You'll get used to it." Jarth said as he straightened his clothes.

As the shuttle reached the embassy quarters, the N7 operators put on their helmets and activated the sound suppression system. Nobody could hear the Humans talk inside their helmets besides the people who were connected to their network. All of Jarth's guards were wearing the generic armor Batarian guards were used, though the arm section was modified slightly so that it would be more comfortable on a Human.

" _Remember lads, try to act like we're one the four-eyes."_ The team leader said.

Near the entrance to the Batarian embassy, Jarth the elder was waiting.

"Father." The younger Jarth greeted.

"Son." The father returned before continuing. "I've already stalled the Council as long as I can. Jath'amon has been called to speak next session, and I'm not sure how much longer I can keep them busy with the mining license requests. Where is Ambassador Goyle?"

"She is still considering on whether or not she should be making an appearance later. On the other hand, Moth'omar said he has his speech ready now. We should enter the Council session and control the narrative before the Chairmen's Ambassador seizes control. 'Beat them to the punch' as the Humans say." Jarth the younger explained.

"Very well, I assume some of your guards are Humans?" the three N7 operators nodded in response. "Good, pay close attention and record what you can. If you can transmit this to your Ambassador, that is even better. She needs to see firsthand how ineffective and slimy the Councilors really are." The Father then said.

As he finished that, Jath'amon exited his office and made his way into the Council chambers with his own guards. The Jarths followed suit, where they then met the Free Batarian representative, Moth'omar.

Unlike the Jarths, Moth'omar had always disliked slavery. His was the first company to fully modernize. Though working conditions are still dangerously poor, lower caste workers who even managed to get into the company can rest assure that they will be taken care of, relatively speaking. Moth's already public progressive leanings made him the perfect candidate to be the face of the Free Batarian Movement.

"You're late." Moth'omar said as the group entered the chambers.

"We took the scenic route." The younger Jarth jokingly replied. The joke flew straight over the representative's head.

"We're losing the initiative as we speak. I was hoping to be able to discuss this further with you, inflate the situation with dramatic effect. It seems I'll have to ditch that plan." Moth'omar said as they took their seats.

Jath'amon, paranoid as he was, began looking over Moth's posse with strange looks, but brushed it off as more corporate lobbying.

"Emergency session on the 18th day of the 6th Citadel month has now started. First topic of discussion is the suspicious nature of recent Batarian ship movements." An Asari said.

Jarth the Younger leaned towards one of the N7 operators and whispered to him.

"That's Tevos Yori, the Asari Councilor. She's shrewd, cunning, and diplomatically talented, but lacks confidence in her actions if she doesn't have backing from her colleagues." He said as the operators nodded along.

"The Council calls upon Hegemony Ambassador to the Citadel Jath'amon to step forward." Tevos continued.

Jath'amon stood from his seat and walked to the petitioner's stage.

"Ambassador Jath'amon, the Council and the Joint Citadel Fleets have been receiving reports of unexplained fleet movements. Your actions are in direct contradiction to the objectives the JCF has given your navy. You have held more ships than needed over Anhur, which directly undermines the war effort on the Batarian front. What is your explanation for this?" The Krogan Councilor said.

"That's Gatatog Yorgal, the Krogan Councilor. He's who you call the Council's muscle. If you need politicians to be threatened, he's the most convincing one to pull it off." Jarth then explained quietly.

On the podium, Jath'amon cleared his throat as he began to speak.

"Esteemed Councilors, on behalf of the Chairmen of the Hegemony, I assure you that nothing of major importance is transpiring that would compromise the war effort's second front. Battlefleet Vanau was moved to Anhur in order to secure the border with the Turians, in the absence of the Joint Citadel Fleet."

"Is that so?" the Salarian councilor now asked.

Once again, the young Jarth explained to the operators who the councilor was.

"That's Toraph Linron, the Salarian councilor. He's quick witted, and always has tricks to play against his political enemies. He used to be STG so he has a lot of connections in the Intelligence community; in fact he's used that in his political dealings plenty of times. It's a rare sight when something eludes his watch."

"The reports we have said otherwise. Does the organization named the _Free Batarian Front_ strike a memory for you?" Toraph questioned.

"A fringe organization, they have tried a terror attack on Anhur some days ago to strike civil unrest. We can assure you that nothing major has happened." The Ambassador lied again.

"Except that's not true, is it?" Tevos now spoke. She brought up footage on the holo-projector, specifically, one of the Turncoats destroying the Batarian Dreadnought. "That's one out of 6 Dreadnoughts lost to fringe rebels was it? I don't think the loss of one of three functional Dreadnoughts counts as _'nothing major'_." She said, driving the point.

" _Damn, she's good."_ One of the operators commented.

"And what of this organization's announcements? Specifically the ones that mention and I quote: ' _allies more powerful than the Hegemony move to bring justice to the tyrants who have oppressed us for so long'_. The only foreign influencer capable of doing such actions is the Turian Hierarchy. Does this mean that the Hegemony has been compromised?" She continued.

"No, esteemed Councilor, the Hegemony is not compromised by the Hierarchy, and the Hegemony is most definitely not in any danger to these radicals!" the Ambassador exclaimed.

Yorgal now spoke.

"So everything is under control then?"

"Yes councilor." the Batarian replied.

"So fringe rebels destroying your dreadnoughts and taking over your battlefleets are not major hindrances to your war effort?" he asked again.

"Yes councilor." He replied again, this time stressing the _yes_.

"So the Joint Citadel Fleet _will not_ need to intervene and stop these rebels?"

"Most definitely _yes_ , councilor." The Batarian replied.

"*wheeze* Then I suppose it shouldn't be too much of a bother *wheeze* to send a pair of SPECTRE agents to make sure all is as said, if you're telling the truth?" the Volus Councilor sneakily said.

"Completely forgot he existed." Jarth whispered to the operators. "That's Bola Fore, the Volus Councilor. Honestly, he's like the child in the group. Nobody really takes him seriously unless it's an economic matter.

"No, no, that will not be necessary." Jath'amon quickly rebuked the suggestion.

"Why not? Is there something you wish to hide, _Ambassador_?" Toraph now questioned.

"No, esteemed councilors, I believe that the agents have better use for their resources than investigating dead ends and minor conflicts in Hegemony space." The Batarian now tried to convince the Councilors.

"Are you _sure_?" Tevos asked, stretching out the last word.

"Yes, councilor, most definitely." The Batarian, clearly tired of the Council's game, said.

"Alright then. You are dismissed Ambassador." Tevos finally said after a pause.

Jath'amon visibly let out a breath he didn't realize he was holding as he walked over to his seat. He believed that most of his problems for the day were over.

"The Council now calls *wheeze* Moth'omar of the Batarian Trade Federation to step forward." Bola now called.

"Wish me luck." Moth said as he stood up and walked to the petitioner's stage.

As he arrived on the stage, the Councilors spoke.

"Moth'omar, you requested to speak here because of _'a geopolitical event which must not be ignored'_ though I fail to see what a Batarian business consortium could find that would bring the need for such a claim."

This clearly shook the Batarian ambassador. His paranoia flared as there was only one major geopolitical event happening within Hegemony space, and he had just spent the last few minutes _denying it._

"That is, esteemed councilors, because the _good_ ambassador Jath'amon has been lying through straight to your collective faces for the past several minutes!" Moth'omar boldly proclaimed. The ambassador in question had nearly jumped in his seat, and the council looked almost shaken.

"Clarify." Yorgal simply demanded.

"I believe it is fair to say that every individual in this room is aware that I hold some 30% of the entire Batarian economy. Less will remember that I am very much opposed to slavery." Moth began explaining. "Simply put, the Hegemony has no place dictating the lives of an entire species with such a backwards system of government. The Batarian race lives not under a Hegemony, but a Tyrannical Oligarchy!"

"Impossible!" Jath'amon burst out furiously.

"What do you mean, impossible? Everything that I will bring forward here has definitely, without a single speck of doubt, happened. Anhur, following the Turian siege has, and forgive my lack of civil words, become fed up with the Chairmen's varrenshit. For years the leaders of the Hegemony ruled over its people with its corrupt and filthy iron fist. One must only look at the recent campaigns held by the Hegemony, as well as those _unofficial._ " Moth said, emphasizing on the last word.

"So *wheeze* why are you here, Moth'omar?" Bola asked.

"Simply put, I have been tasked to speak on behalf of the Free Batarians, and our first public statement, is that we choose not to recognize, neither acknowledge the sovereignty of the Chairmen of the Hegemony, and Khar'shan."

"This is a surprise." Toraph understated.

"If you've been paying attention to the Hegemony's internal policies for the past 2 decades, this wouldn't be. The Hegemony was already rotting away. It's about time we put it down."

"Once again *wheeze* what do you want?" Bola asked.

"We want recognition as a sovereign state." Moth'omar said. He was about to expand on that when Jath'amon cut him off.

"No, that is illegal!"

"Why? What is your justification?" Tevos asked.

"The Free Batarian Front is a terrorist group which uses violence and chaos to spread their goals. If the council chooses to recognize their sovereignty over Anhur, it would be a direct violation of the Citadel Charter. Every race has its right to self-govern, as is written in the 3rd clause and our self-governance puts us at odds with this terror group."

"The Free Batarians of Anhur wish to exercise such right. We have been crushed under the boots of the Chairmen for centuries now; we deserve our right for freedom!" Moth argued.

"This is troubling." Tevos said as she contemplated the galactic laws. "By all means, the Batarian people already practices the 3rd clause. Slavery is legal in Hegemony space, and therefor they have not broken any clauses in the Charter."

"So the Asari, the oldest democracy in the living galaxy, is unwilling to stand for freedom and liberty?" Moth'omar now challenged the council.

"No." Tevos defended herself. "What I am saying, is that this kind of issue has never been covered by any Citadel law. In fact, it is also arguable that it is the Free Batarians that is committing the illegal acts, if we were to observe Hegemony law."

"So it is settled then. The Free Batarians of Anhur should be branded an illegitimate state!" Jath quickly threw in.

"If such is the decision, then perhaps we'll throw our lot in with the Turians. At least as one of their Dominions, we are viewed as equals." Moth then said putting forward an idea many in the chamber find appaling. "I'd imagine that Grand Marshall Kandros would be elated to have a forward operating base in the Terminus. Imagine her getting cozy with the different warlords out there."

"You wouldn't _dare_." Jath'amon grit out.

"Why _wouldn't_ I?" Moth replied. "I see now that the Council's talk of 'freedom' and 'self-determination' is farce which is used merely only when it suits their goals."

Moth'omar stepped away from the stage as he turned his back to the Council. As he began making his towards the chamber exit, a loud voice called him.

"Representative Moth, wait." Yorgal loudly called. An uneasy silence fell as the Batarian business magnate stopped in his tracks. "We mustn't quickly jump into ill thought plans."

Moth turned around to face the Council once more. He walked towards the petitioner's stage once more.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"Seeing that neither side will be willing to settle this peacefully, I propose an… unorthodox solution." Yorgal said. "During my studies of ancient Krogan law, there was a sentencing which roughly translates to 'Trial of the Right'."

"What is this sentencing, exactly?" Jath'amon asked.

"Basically put, when during trial, if no side can be proven guilty or innocent, combat will be used to determine those who is truly right. I propose that both sides settle this issue, independently of the Council body. The Council will not intervene in your conflict, but will support whatever is the final result."

Moth'omar thought of the implications of such a ruling.

"You mean that you will recognize our legitimacy in the event that we defeat the Hegemony?"

"Or condemn your actions as illegal, in the event that you _fail_." Yorgal said with an air of finality. "The ruling is made under the assumption that the winner is right. After all, if you are in the right, your people will support you, no?"

Jath'amon was pissed at this; no doubt he was expecting the Council to back him up completely.

"Fine then, we'll wipe the galaxy of your ilk!" Jath then cursed out at Moth, stomping out of the chambers with his guards in tow.

"*wheeze* you are all dismissed." Bola then told the rest of them.

 **-000-**

 _ **Event Log Update:**_

 **The Hierachy:** besieges four new systems by the end of the week, occupies one. Covertly ships 18 tons of armaments to **Anhur.**

 **The Free Batarian Republic:** declares war on **Batarian Hegemony.**

 **Batarian Hegemony:** leaves the **Citadel Allied Races.**

 **Citadel Allied Races:** war support drops by 1%, liberates two planets successfully.

 **United Krogan Federation:** deploys Super Heavy Dreadnought _ **FSV Ukarn**_ **.**

 **Asari Republics:** The _ **Republic of**_ _**Somaris**_ pulls out of the war effort. Dreadnought _**ASV Blue Thessia**_ pulled out of active service for repair and refitting.

 **Systems Alliance:** parliament passes limited conscription law, also approves limited usage of WMDs. Navy deploys new Spacecraft Carrier _**SSV Hornet.**_ Universal Memorial Day held at beginning of week.

 **Hanar Primacy:** deters invading **Hierarchy** Fleet, **Hanar** battlegroup crippled for foreseeable future, loses sole Dreadnought.

 **Salarian Union:** unveils advanced cyberwarfare VI to combat Hierarchy cryptologic systems.

 **Dominion of Rakhana:** minor uprisingput down by local forces.

 **Dominion of Dekuuna:** begins construction on new **Landcruiser** project.

 **Dominion of Heshtok:** project to extend **Vorcha** life expectancy achieves unexpected breakthrough.

 **A/N:**

 **And that's pretty much it for today! It's been pretty hectic lately, and that's not considering that I'm going to start university soon *shudders***

 **So, expect updates to slow to an absolute crawl starting next the middle of month, I doubt I'd have a lot of free time to work on this when I start studying again.**

 **So, the event log is for things that I kinda wanted to mention on news updates, but can't find the time to write out full paragraphs for it. Minor happenings or little tidbits that don't really affect the main story too much will be placed on event logs. Big, galaxy shaking events will pretty much still be in Galactic News Update, so the event log is really just background noise, most of the time.**

 **We're getting closer to the Council/Human first contact. It'll happen soon folks. Hopefully before I start university, but I digress. My response to a few who have asked 'why neutrality?' is that Humanity's beef is only with the Batarians. Kind of like China in world war 2. They technically were only at war with the Japanese, and were quite uninvolved in every other front. Will the Alliance join in on the galactic scale mess? Most likely. We'll have to see how that plays out in the future.**

 **Right, and minor sidenote, I'm kinda in the market for a new cover for the story. I'll probably make one myself given some free time, but if you want to submit one or give suggestions and the likes of it that's fine by me.**

 **Anyways guys, leave a review or PM me your thoughts, feedback is always nice.**

 **As thanks for reading, and enjoy the rest of your day.**


	27. The Game is Changing

_**Council Private Chamber, The Citadel, October 7, 2192.**_

"Are you _insane?_ " Tevos all but shouted at her Krogan peer. "We had a working plan to deal with the Batarians for centuries. This is a terrible risk." She continued as she rubbed her temples.

"A massive risk, yes, but also one we can mitigate." Yorgal replied as he poured a glass of Ryncol for himself to drink.

"Democracies are incredibly unstable; at least the Hegemony brought an amount of certainty and predictability with its rule. This Batarian democracy could go in any and all other directions!" She said, basically scolding the Krogan that was 200 years older than her. "There's a reason why we don't give Maidens equal representation on the forums."

"Oh come on, you don't think I didn't have a plan, did you?" Yorgal said nonchalantly has he downed his drink.

"*wheeze* It better be a good one! Keeping the Batarians in line is the only thing stopping the Terminus *wheeze* from becoming a major threat. Without them, none of the dozens of warlords would be preoccupied enough to ignore us." Bola now joined in. "I'm willing to give you the benefit *wheeze* of the doubt."

"By the end of their conflict, the winning side will be malleable. Angry, but malleable. We can use that to our advantage. It's just a matter of which side to back. Once that's settled we can approach them covertly and make up a ruse on why we can't do it officially." Yorgal explained.

"The Matriarchs will favor the Hegemony. Their oligarchic system makes their ruling class susceptible to our control." Tevos says. "The Maidens will obviously back the Free Batarians. Ignoring the Matriarchs will lose us long term political influence, ignoring the Maidens may cost us the war effort in many republics, especially among able-bodied Asari."

"Vaheel Doctrine would want us to place political yes-men in the most influential seats." Toraph now weighed in from his seat. "It would be difficult to pull off on a democratic state with various checks and balances. However, keeping the Hegemony around will make it challenging for STG and SPECTRE agents to infiltrate them."

"*wheeze* Democratic economies are more susceptible to foreign influence at a broader level. *wheeze* Puppets being heads of state on a totalitarian government *wheeze* could help us get a good slice of their resources, but we risk outrage from their population. *wheeze* That makes it difficult for us to get good relations. My mind is firmly in support of the Batarian Republic."

"But their military could become uncooperative." Yorgal argued. "Democracies despise wars. Their armed forces would be very much reluctant to support our efforts, _especially_ the ones that which are _less than legal._ "

"We can try to flood the Free Batarians with powerful Citadel corporations that are loyal to us. Have them establish a firm hold on their political system, and make sure they can't do anything that remotely displeases us without massive repercussions." Tevos now suggested. "The Matriarchs may need convincing, but I think they would likely agree. The most powerful Matriarchs control the largest companies in Citadel space."

"We could also use those companies to skew their democratic process." Toraph added. "Make them influence the voters in our interests."

"*wheeze* whichever direction we take, we need to make sure we remain in control so that we could mitigate it's danger to us."

Oh, if only the good Volus knew how dangerous their game was becoming.

 **-000-**

 _ **Caldur City Military Base, Anhur, October 13, 2192.**_

Force Commander Junius and his Blackwatch squad walked into the busy command center, carefully moving around the busy Batarians that were moving around and reorganizing the chamber.

"Commander, welcome to ground zero!" A Batarian at the center of the room loudly called.

"Colonel Cathka, it is good to meet you." Junius then said, saluting the Batarian officer.

"Ah, it is General now, mind you. Most of the professional officers are siding with the Hegemony; we're rushing the training of a lot of officers to make up the count. We've got a whole lot of troops eager to fight, but nobody to lead them." He explained.

"And I suppose that's why my squad is here, to train your officers." Junius said.

"The Turians have the finest officer corps in the Galaxy. I would have preferred the Humans to help train us, as they are closer to us territorially and that I believe their doctrine is quite excellent. However, they're unwilling to help train us at the moment. Nobody but the best should be leading us to the better future, so we called you." Cathka said as he led the Turian to a newly installed hard-light projector. The Hegemony had been willing made due with outdated screens, but the Free Republic was more than eager to get their hands at better equipment.

There, Junius looked over the different numbers and statistics being displayed by the projectors. The galactic balance of power, Hegemony and Republican troop movements, and troop counts were clearly displayed, as well as a galactic map to boot.

"I see we outnumber the Hegemony." Junius commented.

"Numerous troops mean nothing if they don't know how to fight. The majority of the Hegemony's fighters are battle hardened veterans, much more skilled than our rank and file troops." Cathka now explained as he changed the statistics being displayed to comparisons between the two sides. "We've been running VI simulations all morning, and each time the results were… disheartening to say the least."

"What were they?" The Turian now asked.

"On an equal 1-to-1 fight, we're hopelessly outmatched, we can deal damage to them –sure- but the bulk of the Hegemony's advanced equipment was quickly seized by their special forces: the Hegemony's Special Intervention Unit. In addition to having superior equipment, we've gotten word that the SIU is going to be deployed onto the field now, which tips the odds to their even more so. The VI estimates that during this kind of engagements, we'll be the losing side 88% of the time."

"What of the remaining 12%?"

"Ambushes where we can deplete their material and numerical advantages early on, even then casualties will be high on our side."

"What kind of advantages will it take for us to win?" Junius followed up. "And how much do we have to stack on our side before we can be assured of it?"

"At the very least we need a 5-to-1 advantage to be able to defeat them, though that will still result in a massive 3-to-1 casualty ratio. If we want to truly call it a decisive victory, we need an 8-to-1 advantage, with a calculated casualty ratio of 2-to-1." The General rather somberly said.

"I take it you're not too fond of those numbers."

"Needlessly sacrificing lives will not be the future of the Batarian people. This is why we need you and your support. When we can engage the Hegemony with equal capabilities and skill, only then can our numerical advantage truly be used effectively."

"Understood. How long can your deployed forces hold out until we can finish training your officers?" Junius asked once more.

"However long it takes, we can hold on. With the megacorporations siding with us, the Hegemony's industrial capability is crippled greatly. They still hold a massive stockpile of weapons, vehicles, and fuel, however. It will be harder for them to replace material losses, but once their factories come back up to speed, they're going to be fighting us on equal footing." Cathka answered as he showed a graph of the Hegemony's production. As he could see that ever since the Anhur Uprising, production took a nosedive.

"Well then," Junius said. "We better start evening the odds."

 **-000-**

 _ **The Silver Office, Arcturus Station, October 15, 2192.**_

" _Mr President, Representatives Zhao and Krotoshinsky are here to discuss foreign policy plans."_ Harper's secretary said to him over the intercom.

"Let them in Max, I'm expecting them." He said.

The door opened to reveal two well-dressed politicians. The two of them entered the office and Harper ushered them to their seats before sitting across them.

"Good afternoon President Harper." Zhao greeted as she leaned back into his seats.

"Good afternoon Zhao, how's Taipei these days?" Harper replied.

"All is well, fortunately."

"Good afternoon to you too Krotoshinsky; I hear you have a child on the way?"

"Yes, my wife is due very soon, so perhaps we should make this quick?" the representative said through his thick Polish accent.

"Quick it is then." Harper said.

The President placed a couple of folders on the table, inside which were the plans he and Nabwana had worked on a few days ago.

"Alright, we don't have much of anything to play against the Council right now, but as much as I hate it, we have the victim card to play." He now explained .

"So we play to their emotions, make them feel bad for us." Zhao continued as she read the folders she received.

"And we leverage that so that they give us favorable terms, as well as an exchange in technologies." Krotoshinsky said.

"Exactly. The Batarians are essentially client nations of these Citadel aliens. We can pin a large portion of the blame on the three races by accusing them of not monitoring and managing our attackers." The President explained.

"Guilt by association; it could work." Zhao said as she gathered her thoughts on the plan.

"While I don't doubt this is good leverage, I worry that the aliens could use this same reasoning against us in the future if, and this is simply an example, a rogue member of our military struck against them." Krotoshinsky forwarded an issue. "We must make sure that our arguments are as bulletproof as possible."

"On that, I can agree." Zhao said.

"Which leads up to my second point nicely. A few individuals like us can't handle foreign policy by ourselves, which is why I'm drafting up a proposal to form a proper Department of Foreign Affairs. Goyle has already agreed to this, and will most likely be our ambassador. Right now, I wan't input from your parties, respectively." Harper now said, producing another pair of folders. "I know that your Globalist Party has been pushing for the department for a while now Zhao. I know that Krotoshinsky's Nationalist Party is generally reluctant to set up one, which is why I want the input."

"This certainly is a surprise, but a welcome one." Zhao mused. "As far as I am concerned -and by extent the Globalist Party- the sooner we set up a proper line of communication with the Aliens, the better. Goyle is an excellent diplomat and I have no doubt in her abilities, but her Department of International Relations is equipped better to deal with the Old Nations on Earth, and the New Nations in the colonies. Her department is ill equipped to deal with Alien diplomats at the moment, but I believe that reformation and expansion of the DIR should make ends meet."

Krotoshinsky responded to this.

"The general situation has changed, and the Nationalist Party's position on communicating with the Aliens has changed as well. However, we still adamantly believe each of the Nations that comprise the Alliance should have their say in foreign affairs. The Alliance's duty should remain specifically to safeguard its constituents and people, be it militarily and as it would seem in the coming future economically. I personally suggest the formation of a _Bureau_ of Foreign Affairs under the Department of Defense."

"Unacceptable. For an effective relationship with the Aliens to be established, it needs to be possible to make decisions independent of the Department of Defense. Relationships require both parties to open up with each other and having these decisions be subservient to the DOD, who's primary concern is the defense of the Alliance no matter what, will only impede on these relationships." Zhao countered her counterpart's response.

"But that is exactly the problem with having relationships with these Aliens. They are not us, and therefore we can't look at the situation the same way we look at the Russo-American Cold War, or even the European Wars of the 2060s. The catastrophes of diplomatic fallout with these Aliens could be cataclysmic in scale. They will not hold back against us the same way we held back against our fellow Humans. There will be no commonality that will stop them from annihilating us as they did with the RachniAliens, who are quite extinct if you read the files provided to us."

Harper was quickly taking notes as the two continued to exchange their points. Being an independently registered candidate, he lacked the deep insight into the inner workings of the political parties of the Alliance. He was often called 'The Great Mediator' by the people simply because he can bring together the different parties in the Alliance to work together, even before the War had started.

As the two opposing politicians in front of him continued to bicker, Harper's belief in his role as the Great Mediator was only confirmed. After all, if nobody stopped those two from continuously arguing, nothing would be achieved and the Alliance itself would only tear itself apart slowly.

That would be a massive disaster, and Harper couldn't afford another one of those.

 **-000-**

 **A/N:**

 **Hey folks, its ya boi Dovahcheese back at it again with another chapter of this story I've neglecting for waaaay too long.**

 **So, I've been in college for week over a month now, and it's emotionally exhausting. Most of the Professors I got this semester are pretty chill, but the same can't really be said of my classmates. On the bright side, my chances of getting a girlfriend is way up, though an incremental increase from point-oh-one isn't that much of an improvement but… Well, I've gotta keep myself going somehow.**

 **Anyways, I'm going to have to go redrawing the political landscape on The Great War, 'cause right now, it's a doozy. I'm going through my notes again and having to revise a lot of stuff I planned out a few months ago. Turns out reflecting on my past choices brings them up to perspective. Like, I can't believe I was expecting the Council to take losing their influence over the Batarians lying down. Jeez, I come up with shit ideas when my brain is dazed because I decided to go half a week with barely any sleep.**

 **I went into this story fully intending on giving the Batarians and Quarians a 'happy ending' but after reworking so many things… I'm not so sure I can do that anymore.**

 **Speaking of Quarians, I still haven't gotten a chance to show y'all their take on this entire mess, how they are in this Galaxy, what their deal with this incarnation of the Geth will be, and how much belligerency will they have. Well, I intend on working on it the next chapter. I mean, it's not going to be too radically different from their canon states, so don't expect cybernetic Quarians with Geth programs that live in harmony alongside them in Rannoch and that their completely isolationist and have super advanced plasma weapons, crazy computer tech, non-Mass Effect FTL drives and all that other jazz. Those totally aren't what I first drafted them as. Nope. Not a chance.**

 **Anyways, I got the message from some-a-y'all:** _ **Event Logs aren't the coolest things since sliced bread.**_ **So I'll be ditching them entirely.**

 **Review or message me what you think about The Great War so far. I don't always reply or directly address what you write/send me, but I do take these into consideration, so don't worry about your concerns falling into deaf ears because they're not.**

 **As always, thanks for reading and have a nice day.**


	28. The War Within

_**8**_ _ **th**_ _ **Army Corps HQ, Thargora Thoraga, October 16, 2192.**_

Quin'Ra vas Rayya stepped off of her cargo shuttle and onto the landing platform as soon as the Turians outside had given her the all clear. Her assistants helped her offload several crates worth of supplies that the Turian military was more than eager to buy from the Migrant Fleet. Goods such as Dextro medical supplies, food, and cybernetics are in high demand in the Turian front lines, and the Quarian people aren't above selling them for large profits.

"Here you are commander, food, meds, and another 1000 sets of cybernetic limbs, as well as half a thousand pairs of eyes, though I don't exactly believe that these sets are going to be staying together for long." Quin said as she handed the Turian officer in charge the complete shipping manifest. The officer signed for the delivery on her omni-tool.

"Well, you're right on that point. Not that it matters though. The grunts here have gotten into personalizing their robo-limbs. Doctor Nyx says it's how they cope with loosing arms and all that, to give them some semblance of control over their fate." He explained. "Can't say I understand how that's works in detail, but if it keeps the troops happy, I'm happy."

Quin nodded as the commander lead her over to his desk where she would receive the approval documents for her payment, which was a massive load of raw materials in addition to the credits already wired to her account.

Over by the desk, was one of said crippled soldiers, and one of the medical staff wearing a blue coat was accompanying him. The staff member seemed to have a rather nasty looking scar on her throat, though Quin couldn't tell what got her that in the first place.

"Ah, Doctor Nyx, good morning." The commander said.

"Good morning as well commander." She replied. "Quin'Ra, it's good to see you too."

"The feeling is mutual, Doctor." The Quarian replied, recognizing the doctor.

"Ah, forgive my rudeness, this is Captain Lekh Kuril." The Doctor said thoughtfully, introducing the soldier she was accompanying. Quin noticed that the Kuril had a very basic prosthetic left arm, as well as missing an entire left eye. It would seem that the Turians really are desperate in this front; Kuril's left arm was nothing but metal rods and a claw!

"Good morning commander, good morning to you too Miss…"

"Quin'Ra" The young Quarian hastily told the Captain her name.

"Quin'Ra, yes." Kuril continued. "So you're the one who's been delivering our limbs huh?" Kuril casually asked.

"Yes, as well as extra food and medical supplies. I think you'll find the prosthetic arm my crew and I have brought to be of very high quality.

"Well, do these cyber-arms come with machineguns?" Kuril then asked.

"No. It's illegal to mount weapons and firearms on to prosthetic. Citadel laws." Quin answered.

"That's a shame, I know a lot of folks who would like having fallback weapons in their prosthesis. I mean, an extra gun is a lot more reliable than these short swords we're given after we finish training." The Commander remarked as he tapped the hilt of his sheathed blade mounted on his belt.

"Looks like you'll be getting that arm upgraded sooner than expected, Captain." The Doctor said.

"The sooner I get back to the front, the better. Only the Spirits know what madness Victus might pull off while I'm gone." Kuril replied.

 **-000-**

 _ **Hall of Lords, Caldur City, Anhur, October 16, 2182.**_

Civil war might be completely detrimental for a nation, but in this particular case one party stood to either gain, or lose the most.

The slaves.

And nowhere was this more evident than in the cradle of the uprising itself. This was the situation that thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of slaves in the city found themselves in.

One in particular, a middle aged Asari matron 550 years of age by the name of Tala T'mai, brought herself to the provisional government's center to ask the most important question she had after a quarter century of slavery:

"Well, what now?" She asked the official that was meeting her.

"Plans are being drawn up right now to ship all of you back to Citadel space." The official answered. "We hate to have to _use_ you people again, but the Commanders-in-Chief want to shore up support in Citadel space. The best card they can play right now are you people."

"Best card to play?" The Salarian accompanying her asked.

"Cards to play, like those old games that… eh, never mind." The official sheepishly said. Most of the former slaves still don't know about the Humans as of yet. His slip of tongue using a Human figure of speech was an accident.

Tala was relieved to hear that she wouldn't be pressed into any more work she didn't want. Half of her life was already wasted living in chains, so anything other than compelled labor is good news.

However, this brought about a concern.

She's been gone for over 250 years; a quarter of her projected lifetime. Tala doubted there would be anything waiting for her back in Citadel space, especially considering how she got stuck on this entire debacle in the first place.

Hesitantly, she asked the official.

"What if I don't want to go back?"

Her Salarian friend looked at her with widened eyes; the Batarian in the room wasn't surprised much. In reply, the official shook his head.

"Unless you're willing to stay and contribute to the war effort, you have to leave." He said. "We're barely making do with what we have right now, the Republic can't feed, much less take care of all of you."

"Why don't you want to leave? I thought you were eager to 'get out of here'?" the Salarian asked her.

"That was then, this is now. There's nothing back there waiting for me. Isn't there anywhere else I could go? Maybe the Asari enclaves in Turian territory would accept me!"

"We've already consulted them on this matter; the Turians are not taking in non-dextro refugees. Quarians only, and even then they're going to be shipped straight to the Migrant Fleet to…"

"Gather sympathy with their fellow dextros." The Salarian finished for the official.

"More or less. We also aren't shipping you to the Terminus for the obvious reasons." The official continued. "You'll just end up back with the Hegemony, and that's unacceptable both in moral terms and in practical terms."

"You don't want the Hegemony to get more workers on their manufactories, and you don't want to deal with the guilt of having us get caught again." The Salarian said.

"Basically put, yeah."

"So what other options do I have?" Tala asked again.

"Well, you're not the first one to bring this issue to us; there are a surprisingly large amount of people who feel the way you do. There is one more angle we can try to play, but we're not sure if we can get this through with them." The official now said, scratching his chin slightly.

"Get it through with whom?" Tala asked for details.

"Nobody you need to know at the moment." The official hastily said. "Right now, just know that we won't be deporting you anywhere for the time being." He continued as he got up and showed the pair their way out. "We'll get back to you when we have a breakthrough on your situation."

With that the two were sent on their way.

"Those last few remarks were rather… odd, wouldn't you say?" Tala asked her friend.

"Certainly! They won't send you back to Citadel space, they won't send you to the Turians and they won't let you stay here." The Salarian thought as he spoke. "Perhaps they're trying to send you to these new people I've been hearing about as of late."

"New people where? What am I missing here?" Tala now asked the Salarian.

"Oh, you haven't heard of the Humans yet?" the Salarian asked her in return, to which Tala responded by shaking her head. "Well then Tala, we better find someplace else to talk about this. You're in for a lot of surprise."

 **-000-**

 _ **The Silver Office, Arcturus Station, October 18, 2192.**_

Ambassador Nyx is now having another one of his negotiation sessions with President Harper, this time with Representatives Zhao and Krotoshinsky along for the ride. Primarch Fedorian and a majority of the Hierarchy's delegation had returned to Turian space to resume their duties. This left Ambassador Nyx to continue the plight.

Because they have been approached by the Commanders-in-chief of the Batarian Republic on the matter, the group has agreed to discuss the situation and the implications of the civil war.

Zhao and Krotoshinsky were present because they lead the two largest political parties in the Alliance Parliament. Harper had pleaded to them to form a coalition government at the onset of the war. Graciously, they have agreed. For obvious reasons, Terra Firma and the Alliance Totalist Party have been left out of this meeting.

Joining them over the holographic communicator was the acting foreign minister of the Batarian Republic, Moth'omar.

" _The situation with our supplies is growing bleaker by the day. We simply do not have enough food to supply our people for long. Rationing has already been enacted, but even then our situation is unsustainable in the long run."_ Moth told them.

"The Hierarchy will do what we can in regards to munitions and weaponry, but I'm afraid that regarding these refugees, we can't do anything." Ambassador Nyx told the Batarian foreign minister.

"Logically speaking," Zhao spoke. "The Alliance is going to be most qualified to take them in, so long as these refugees are a Levo bases species."

"We're already going through some rationing as well Mrs. Zhao." Harper brought in his opinion. "Massive military expansion means less people in the farms. Output's taken a massive hit, and taking in all these refugees are going to put even more strain or our supplies."

"I understand Mr. President, but taking in these people is going to be a massive boon for us in the long run." The Globalist representative defended. "By taking them in, we can secure ourselves a good image in the eyes of the galactic community."

"And what of our own communities?" Harper countered. "We have enough on our plate as it is. While I'm certain that these refugees are going to do wonders for external PR, it's going to be a nightmare for internal PR. I'd imagine the lesser of the Old Nations, especially those in Africa, are going to object to us spending resources on these Aliens, whilst we have trouble managing our own problems. We have to sort out our own rooms first, for lack of better words."

"Mr. President, I think I have a good solution to this issue." Krotoshinsky said.

"Well Mr. Representative, I'm all ears." Harper replied.

"For one, I agree with Mrs. Zhao on this matter. Taking in these refugees will be of great benefit to us."

"Thank you for that Krotoshinsky." Zhao said to the Polish representative.

"Yes, but I'm not sure you'd agree with what I have in mind." He continued. "My proposal is to filter out the freeloaders from the useful ones."

"Excuse me?" Zhao asked, rather confused.

"What I'm saying is that, we only take in refugees who are guaranteed to be useful. We should only take aliens who could help speed up our research, who could tell us about their technologies, who can tell us about how the Council works and how to take advantage of them, and most importantly, those who can assimilate into our society."

"That would exclude a great many of them! These people were slaves, Krotoshinsky, not scientists or socialites. I suspect that you thought of this exactly because it would exclude a great many, if not all of them." Zhao argued.

"Which is why I believe it is best that we filter as much of them as possible. Not all of these people are going to fit in and be useful to us. By only taking in those who are guaranteed to benefit us, we can spread the resources around much more evenly." The Polish politician argued back.

"An interesting proposal, Mr. Krotoshinsky." Harper said. "Anything you'd like to change from this, Zhao?"

"By only taking in a select few, we risk looking like we're profiteering off of the civil war, as opposed to actually trying to help." She thought up. "Perhaps by broadening the qualifications we can still filter out the 'freeloaders' as you call them, and the one you believe are 'beneficial'."

"Civil service." Harper suggested. "By having the refugees do a mandatory round of civil service, we can show that these aliens can function in our society, as well as show that we aren't just profiting from the conflict."

"Add military service to that, and I'm fairly certain you've got the Nationalist Party's vote." Krotoshinsky said, leaning into his seat.

" _Optional_ military service, and yes, I also think the members of the Globalist party are likely to agree to this, even if it would take some persuasion."

" _It's not going to solve our problems entirely, but it's a first step towards a solution. Thank you President Harper, my people owe you a great debt."_ Moth said after listening to the two heads of Parties reach an agreement.

"Keep your people's end of the bargain Minister, and we'll be on a run towards being even." Harper replied.

 **-000-**

 _ **SPECTRE Corps HQ, The Citadel, October 18, 2192.**_

Wrex and Vasir had hit a dead end on their leads from the STG blacksite they had visited earlier. Whatever thing was being grown in those labs had been spirited away by the Turian Blackwatch operators that had rudely interrupted them. However, the SPECTRE Agents had been able to note down the equipment being kept at the raided lab. Things like DNA extractors, Biomaterial Synthesizers, a Cybernetics Fabricator, and also several growing vats. Vasir didn't like the implications of the STG actively using these kinds of machines; after all, extensive gene modification is extremely illegal. That was the conclusion she got from reviewing her notes again at least.

" _If all that is true, *wheeze* then it is very disconcerting."_ The Volus Councilor, Bola, said over the communicator.

Wrex suggested that Councilor Bola was, at the moment, the only Council member they could trust. The Salarian and Asari Councilors were likely to be complicit in this. He reasoned that the two were so politically connected to other persons-of-interest that a scheme such as this should be known to them by now. The fact that they're not doing anything about it means that either they are in on it, or are turning a blind eye to it.

The equipment that the STG blacksite held was bleeding edge stuff, hard to purchase and very, very expensive. The fact that the SPECTRE's best Cybercrime Investigator, a Volus named Elow Jan, can barely find out how it ended up in their hands should tell how deep into the political minefield they're going to have to venture to get to the bottom of this.

"We are certain it is." Elow told the councilor. "There are only 30 Biomaterial Synthesizers of said model ever made. *wheeze* 27 of them are purchased by various research institutes around Citadel space, 1 of them was bought by the Okeer Clan in Tuchanka. *wheeze* 2 of them are currently undergoing repairs in the manufacturer's workshop, and those are owned by private research companies, still here in Council space."

Vasir now stepped forward.

"The ones being used in the Blacksite has the same registration numbers as the one being owned by a major Asari research institute in Armali." She said.

" _That's T'_ _soni territory, Benezia's_ _sphere of influence."_ The Volus Councilor said.

"Exactly, and it's an open secret that Matriarch Benezia has Councilor Tevos under said sphere of influence." Vasir continued. "Frankly it's a miracle the rest of the Republics haven't pulled out of the war effort yet."

" _I understand why you would approach myself, and only myself for this *wheeze*. Investigate further into this. I want more evidence before I want to do anything with these accusations. *wheeze* Just because these things happened where the other Councilors have their eyes and ears, *wheeze* doesn't mean they are involved."_ Councilor Bola now said.

"Yes sir." Wrex said. "Will you bring this to the Krogan Councilor?"

" _No. *wheeze* Clan Gatatog are deep in bed with House T'soni. We'll keep this small for now."_

"Understood." The SPECTRE Agents said.

The Councilor closed the line, leaving the three agents now by themselves. Vasir let out an exasperated sigh as she moved away from the communicator and onto a bench nearby.

"We're really deep in this one huh?" She asked Wrex, who gave out a loud chuckle.

"You did say this was potentially game changing." The elder Krogan mused.

"Not like this though. A plot implicating the Councilors is way more than I had expected. I just thought this was a rogue STG network needed to be put down, the usual deal you know?"

"*wheeze* It would seem the plot runs deeper than that." Elow said. The Volus was greeted with the confused faces of the other SPECTRE Agents in the room.

"I omitted some data from the Councilor earlier. *wheeze* There was a small link was also found leading to members of the Citadel Central Bank. Specifically, *wheeze* the one in Irune."

Wrex replied to the Volus.

"That's Turian occupied space. You think they're in on this too?"

"*wheeze* Inconclusive, the last few transmissions between them was three days after the Turian invasion of Irune began, a day before the sacking of the Central Bank, and the last one eight days later, right before we lost contact."

"That would make it two years ago." Vasir added.

"Yes. *wheeze* That is why I omitted it as I would rather get some more information on this matter than I have right now."

The Volus ended on that and excused himself out of the room, leaving Vasir and Wrex on their own.

"Well Vasir, I guess we did learn something about you today." Wrex quipped.

"What's that?"

"Your gut isn't one to be messed with." The Krogan finished.

 **-000-**

 _ **Archive Update:**_

 **Excerpt from the book** A Newcomer's Guide to Understanding the Asari **by Tala T'mai, published 2204 by** _ **Harper Multimedia Co.**_ **in Alliance space, and 2209 by** _ **Independent Literary Society**_ **in Council and Hierarchy space.**

"Despite being the oldest civilization to exist in the known galaxy, Asari society still clings to ancient tribalism regarding their allegiances to the city states, which evolved into the various political cliques or _Houses_ as we called them. Unlike what most of you would think, _Houses_ aren't limited to just one _Lineage_ , as the different _Lineages_ we've discussed earlier will most likely pledge their allegiances towards one of the _Houses._ For example, the Vasir Lineage has pledged their allegiance to _House T'soni,_ which is the dominant House in Armali. This would align the Vasirs to T'soni's political goals. So even if a Vasir managed to enter a position of importance, such as Councilor Tevos at the time of writing, she would still be subservient to House T'soni's will.

This was the result of several millennia worth of political maneuvering and plots. While one could draw comparisons to the Turian or Human's allegiance to the state or nations back when they were still bound to their homeworlds, Asari plots and schemes can take a very long time to actually play out. A very long time, in this context, is not just years or decades, but even centuries if need be. Because of this, Asari politics can seem very static, add to that most Matriarch's dislike upsetting the status quo, then you have a situation where most of the major _Houses_ have entrenched their influence and strangled out the lesser _Houses._ Another example from _House T'soni_ would be the absorption of their ancient rival, _House Ciala,_ some 12 centuries ago. After that, not many of the different _Houses_ have made any major moves, instead opting to consolidate their own powers.

This is completely different to the Human political battlefield, where the different parties in the individual states of Earth are as dynamic as the political battlefield in the Alliance parliament. To an Asari such as myself, the rate at which these events happen can become dizzying at times. Even the United States of America, infamous with what is essentially a two-party state system, still has a more dynamic playing field than the political conflict between _House T'soni_ and _House Dantius._ "

 **Excerpt from** The Great Powers and Total War **by General John J. Shepard, published independently 2260.**

"I think it's unfair that the Asari are touted as the 'French Alien'. They're always portrayed as always needing back up from their allies and are incapable of fighting on their own. Just through evaluating the Asari I have under my command, I disagree with these notions completely. Many of them are just as capable, as aggressive, and as ferocious as any Human, Turian, and Batarian Marine I've served with during the Reaper War. I do, however, think it is fair to say that the Asari high command, generally always looking fifty or sixty steps ahead in their plans, often fail to capitalize on new opportunities that pop out in the third or fourth. And this I believe is their greatest downfall. While the extremely long view Asari leaders often take is effective in a peaceful environment, this way of thinking can often be detrimental to you during war. Such inflexibility undermines your commander's ability to wage said war. Political ambitions have little to no place in trenches and foxholes; the fact that so many in the Asari high command have their own agendas should worry all boots on the ground. Their high command schemes against each other so much that it almost makes me pity them."

 **-000-**

 _ **A/N:**_

 **Greetings fellows, tis' thy guy, Dovahcheese, backeth again with another addition of mine own story. In between mine damnation of life, I hath did manage to writeth down another chapter.**

 **Nary has there been a tale more woe than of mine own life.**

 **Bard Alexa, playeth thy lute to Despacito.**

 **Alright, shitposting aside, things had been pretty hectic as of late, so I'm honestly really lucky that I've managed to even get to work on this. I hope this works.**

 **In reply to one review by Admiral Sakai, yes I too did notice the last few chapters had been rather aimless, and perhaps it was a reflection of my current of life, I don't know. I'm sure that by the time society has devolved into reviewing fanfiction in English classes, some overexcited Sheffield born, blonde haired, chubby English Language teacher somewhere is going to dig straight onto the lack of direction as just that. I mean, the same thing totally didn't happen with an excerpt about sunlight and shadows in my highschool.**

 **I've also done some more world building, this time for the Asari. Their society wasn't as well developed as I liked it to be in Mass Effect, so I've taken some personal liberties. After all, any society that has existed for as long as these 1000 year old chicks are, political cliques are eventually going to form up.**

 **Anyways, I hope you like what I've written up so far. As always, review or send me what you think about this stuff so far.**

 **Thanks for reading, and enjoy the rest of your day.**


	29. A Plan and some Faith

_**Camp Taril, Tykis Frontline Sector, Thargora Thoraga, November 1 2192.**_

Kuril, carrying a sling bag, stepped off of the shuttle and onto solid ground. It had been quite a while since he was at the camp, and after looking around, he found that not much had changed since he last set foot on it.

Now that he had been promoted to captain, this meant that he had more soldiers to deal with, and more briefings to attend to.

First order of business, sign in.

The newly arrived captain quickly searched for the camp's quartermaster who, as it turns out, was busy going through the supplies that had arrived with Kuril. The captain walked up to her, stood ramrod straight, and saluted.

"Quartermaster Nyx, Captain Kuril from the 332nd Mobile Battalion, Mox Company. I was told to report to you upon arrival, ma'am." He announced.

The quartermaster turned and saw Kuril's heavily scarred face. She just shook her head and beckoned him to follow her.

"Captain Kuril, welcome back. Ready for another turn in the slog?" she joked lightly.

"Nope, not that it'll make any difference though, would it?" He replied.

"None at all. Well, let's get you settled in with the rest of your regiment." She said as she led the captain. "Go ahead and take a nap, but don't doze off for too long, General Oraka starts his briefing session about two hours from now. Something about movement orders from Supreme Hierarchy Operational Command –or you know, SHOC."

"Apologies in advance if this is intrusive, but are you at all related to a Doctor Nyx?" Kuril asked as he followed her.

"Yes, she's my sister." Nyx answered. "She told me about you, even in bed you're eager to fight." She said.

"Err... what?" Kuril asked confused now.

"Bed rest, not bed." She corrected herself "Dammit, slip of tongue. No offense intended."

"None taken either way." He said as they reached his barrack.

"Thank you." She said. "Well considering you're a captain now, congrats on your promotion by the way, we're going to meet each other... a lot." She informed him. "So, yeah, get used to me messing up my sentences."

Kuril simply nodded as the Quartermaster excused herself. Following that, the captain entered the barrack and went over to his quarter. Being a captain also brings him some benefits, like a more comfortable bed, and a privacy screen that he can actually pull out if he needs to do things without prying eyes.

Setting his sling bag down, Kuril lay down on his bed and allowed himself to drift into sleep…

 _ **An hour later…**_

Kuril stepped into the field HQ where all the important officers had gathered. It was likely that around one hundred Turians were present, plus some officers from the Dominion forces present. He quickly found a seat close to the other captains of his Battalion, and as it happens, was also beside the quartermaster.

"Small camp huh?" Kuril joked as he sat down to her left.

"Unfortunately." She replied sarcastically "How was your rest?" She replied.

"Restless, my left arm's all numb and heavier that it's supposed to be." He said, raising his cybernetic arm and letting its hand twirl on its joints. "What're you doing here anyways? I thought only relevant officers get to join operation briefings."

"Yeah. This must be something _big._ For the usual planned skirmish or limited offensives, they just send me a list of what the grunts are going to need. Quartermasters are only put in the loop whenever lots of supplies are going to be moved in a short period of time." She informed the captain. "I wonder what General Oraka has planned?"

"Speaking of which, here he comes." Kuril pointed out.

The General stepped up onto a podium, and as he did a holographic projector screen lit up behind him.

"Soldiers, I'll try to make this brief. We've got orders from SHOC and a limited timeframe to pull it off. This is arguably the riskiest set of maneuvers we're doing in this campaign so far." He told them.

On the projector screen, a map of the Tykis Frontline Sector was highlighted, some 50 square kilometers of former grass fields and farmyards turned into a muddy hell hole and a slog scarred by artillery fire. Several lines of trenches then also materialized on screen, with the red lines being Council held trenches, and the yellow lines being Hierarchy held trenches. With all the trenches and projected troop counts now on screen, a series of arrows also materialized.

"People, this is Operation Dark Blue and it is a 3 phase maneuver." The General continued.

On the screen, a digital representation of the sun dipped below the horizon, and was replaced by a moon. Looping footage of several logistics vehicles moving back and forth between a set of thin trenches on the frontline, and a thick set of trenches far behind was projected.

"The first is Phase Lorkhil. In this Phase, the Logisticorps will mobilize and transport supplies and personnel to a much improved, much more defensible trench line. We're leaving only a token defense force to keep up appearances." He explained as he pointed at the images on screen. "Compared to our current trenches, Defense Line Thanix is like a luxury hotel."

The light joke elicited some laughter from the officers present.

"We can't let the Allied Races discover our movements, however. If they do, they'll be sure to attack us in our weakened state. This means night movement only, and when our Cyberwarfare teams are scrambling their sensors."

After that, Colonel Victus asked a question.

"Regardless of whether or not they know of our movements, what are we supposed to do if they attack us?"

"I was getting to that, Colonel." Oraka chastised.

A series of new arrows and images now materialized on screen. This time, they were boxes with the emblems of the units they represented.

"The second phase, Phase Menae. In this phase, small and limited assaults are to distract the enemy and keep them on the defense while the Logisticorps mobilize. This means trench raids, and night attacks only. Don't bother capturing enemy positions, as those positions will be totally irrelevant once the operation is complete."

Victus and many other officers nodded along.

"The final phase, Phase Glatisant, is when all remaining forces in the forward trenches are pulled back to Defense Line Thanix. The Allied races will be allowed to advance and capture our forward trenches, which would be rigged with explosives by our Pioneers. Once enough of their forces have occupied the trench, we will trigger the trap. Destruction of the trench lines are secondary, but would be highly preferable to the enemy having defensible positions within artillery range."

The head of the Engineers Regiment, replied to that out loud.

"We'll leave nothing but scorched earth." He said.

"That's what I like to hear." The general nodded. "Quartermasters, organize with the Logisticorps and the Pioneers, we need this done as efficiently as possible within the next few weeks. Everyone clear on what's needed to be done?"

Around the room, everyone was nodding in agreement.

"Good, let's get to work."

 **-000-**

 _ **The Silver House, Arcturus Station, November 9, 2192**_

After a relatively polarizing media campaign, President Harper's proposed plan to the Alliance parliament to take in the former slaves has finally been passed, though not without opposition. As he had expected, a sizable portion of Krotoshinsky's All Nationalists Union Party was skeptical, if not entirely opposed, to it.

Inside his room, Harper had three separate screens on, each on different news channels covering the passing of the 'Xeno Assimilation and Refugee Program'. The polls, while the President didn't put much faith in them, showed a 56.4% approval rating. A small lead, but a lead nonetheless.

As he sat on his couch and took another bite from his dinner, a small tune and vibrations on his pocket told him that someone was calling him. Pulling out his phone, he saw his son's face and phone number on the screen.

Quickly swallowing the food that he was chewing, Harper answered the call.

" _Hey, Dad, is this a bad time?"_ his son told him.

"Not at all Jack, I was just finishing my dinner." He replied. "What's going on, any problems?"

" _Oh, no. No problems, I was just calling to congratulate you on that... ah... bill being passed."_ The younger Harper told his father.

"Ah, yes… Thank you for that. Anything else?" the elder Harper thanked his son somewhat awkwardly.

Jack was only silent, unsure what to say. After a rather lengthy awkward silence, Jack finally spoke up again.

 _"Well, that's all then, I guess. We'll talk again later…"_

The elder Harper cut his son off.

"Hey Jack, come on. I know we're not on the best of terms ever since… ever since…" Donnie trailed off.

" _Ever since Mom was murdered, yeah."_ Jack now cut off his father.

"Yes, ever since Karen died. I know you blame yourself for what happened, Jack, but it's got to stop." He said.

" _Dammit Dad, I don't have time for this."_ Jack replied rather angrily.

"No son. It's about damn time we talked." The elder Harper said sternly. "We're the only ones left of the Harper family, and as much as I enjoy working with my cabinet members, they're not my family; _you_ are."

Jack was silent, he didn't exactly know what to reply.

"And God dammit son, I know you're pissed that I shafted your career from Field Operator to Information Control, but I can't lose _you too."_ He continued.

 _"Then let me loose, Dad."_ He finally replied. " _The sooner this war ends, the sooner we can sort out this family issue."_

The elder Harper still didn't like having his working behind enemy lines.

 _"I have the means and the resources to end this war quick. To avenge Mom."_ Jack explained further.

"I'll... think about it." the President replied.

 _"It's all I ask."_ Jack replied.

 **-000-**

 **A/N:**

 **Hey guys, Dovahcheese here, back from the dead. I hope y'all had a Merry Christmas and Happy New Years, I know I did. Anyways, yeah I'm back, and hopefully I should be able to keep writing this, though I might not be able to hit monthly updates. Honestly, writing I'm kinda burned out on writing Mass Effect and Sci-Fi in general. Don't get me wrong, I still very much enjoy writing the story, just need a little more variety is all.**

 **Also, i saw a recent review which pointed my flaw in the Battle over Shanxi part with the 'meatshields' and yeah, it's a bit out of place I admit, and I never was good at physics so that's a double whammy. I might go back and try to fix some of it, but that'll have to in the far future when I get my shit together.**

 **As always, thanks for reading, review what you think, or PM me. H** **ave a nice day**


	30. A Plot? But What is It?

_**SSV Jerusalem, Above Shanxi, November 29, 2192**_

Jack Harper finally finished his last bit of paperwork for the week. Jack was still amazed that the Alliance higher ups still insisted on using actual paper for reports. Something about the old guard not exactly trusting an all digital system. Frankly, Jack was sure that paper files are never going away. For one, the conservatives in high places were right that paperwork isn't as susceptible to cyber-attacks. The files he had just signed was to be scanned and uploaded to the intelligence and bureaucratic database, and the paper itself sent to various vaults in Mars and Earth. Just as he tidied up his things, he received a call on his personal line. Not a lot of people knew his personal number, so Jack could already narrow down who was calling him. Checking his phone, he saw his father's name on the caller ID. Jack took a deep breath, then answered the call.

"Hey Dad." He greeted.

 _"Hey son. Is this a bad time? What time is it over there anyways?"_ The elder Harper fired away almost immediately.

"Ah... no it's not, and it's around 1850 hours right now." Jack answered.

 _"I see. Well, anyways, remember when we talked about me ah... letting you loose?"_ Donald asked. Jack didn't answer but merely nodded, not that his father could see it. Donald took it as a sign to keep talking. _"I've made up my mind about it, made a few calls, talked to some folks and all that. I can pull some strings and get you transferred from Domestic Intelligence to Foreign Operations."_ He said.

This was beyond good news for Jack. For one, his father now finally trusted him enough to let him loose, and the other is that he can now propose his plans to expedite ending the war.

"That's... that's great news Dad." Jack replied, but then he remembered that his father was a business man, and he rarely ever did anything without asking for something in return. "What's the catch?"

 _"You were always too smart for your own good. You catch on too quickly"_ Donald said, laughing lightly. _"I only have one condition: since you're getting transferred next year, I want you back on Earth for New Year's celebrations, and bring Eva with you."_

"Dad, that's two conditions." Jack replied.

 _"Conditions 1-A and 1-B then."_ Donald defended. _"Look, it's an easy deal. Just you and your girlfriend home for New Years. Hell, I'll bring Ben along as third wheel if you need me to."_

"I don't think that'll be necessary, Dad." Jack shook his head. "I'll put in a request for leave."

 _"That's all_ I _ask, son."_

 **-000-**

 _ **Marathon Military Base, Mars, December 18, 2192.**_

Jack walked down the hallways of the Mars's biggest military base. The base was designed and built by the first colonists that arrived. As such, it bears much resemblance to US military bases on Earth. He entered a lift which took him down from the rooftop landing pad towards the rest of the massive, sprawling base. The lift had windows which allowed it's occupants to look around and survey the surroundings. Peeking outside, the ACI agent saw a column of soldiers marching drilling in their new equipment.

Powered Armor.

The hulking suits looked even more impressive in person than it did in video. Jack was certain it would look even better up close and personal.

The lift opened up and exited the enclosed building towards the open field outside. Open compared to the rest of the base as the entire complex at least, as it was built under a massive dome which protected them from the elements. Out on the field, evaluating the armored soldiers was a certain scientist in a lab coat. Jack approached her, his steps were silent and without noise. The scientist was busy looking at the notes in her datapad and did not at all notice Jack walking up beside her. Jack let her continue like this for almost a whole minute before speaking up.

"Good afternoon, Eva." Jack simply said.

Eva nearly jumped at the greeting.

"Ah, oh. How long have you been standing there?" She said, composing herself.

"A minute or so." Jack replied, smirking. "So are these the our new toys?"

"Yes, they are." She answered. "Magnificent, aren't they?" she continued as the two watched the column of Power Armored soldiers practiced marching in formation. The column moved in almost perfect synchronization. From a distance, it might look like one was simply seeing after-images of only a handful of soldiers. Such discipline and dedication was to be expected for a Martian born, especially those from Marathon.

The column passed by close to them and as they continued marching they saluted Eva, which they all recognized as the head of the 'Tank-Man' project. The continued on, each step on their march accentuated with a resounding metallic clang sound. This sound was multiplied by the hundreds as the column marched by.

Being this close, Jack could appreciate the armor in much better detail. He had seen the simulation videos in his office back in the _Jerusalem,_ but seeing it in action was a whole other kind of show. The almost comically sized shoulder pauldrons moved with weight that wasn't simulated in the proposal videos he saw online, the each step exuded power, _raw power_. Each step had the entire armor piece move with a dangerously beautiful kind of grace, the separate armor pieces shifting and jiggling slightly with every motion. The helmet simply screamed _menacing_ as the single, reflective slit was angled to make it seem like the wearer was focused and hell bent on killing whatever was in front of himA single ventilation filter was where the mouth would be, looking similar to a scowl or a beast bearing it's fangs. The Martian high noon reflected on the still shiny armor, making it glisten like a knight in shining armor. On the left pauldron was the Martian flag, a large blue semicircle on the left side and 13 stripes of red and white. On the right pauldron was their divisional insignia. A bald eagle, facing to the right, clutching a rifle and a saber. Under the eagle was text denoting the soldier's division:

 _501st Division, Sons of Mars._

"They really are something else." Jack said as he finished appreciating the armor pieces in display.

"They sure are." Eva replied, beaming with pride. She looked just like a mother watching her children graduate college and getting their first degree. She turned to Jack now that the drilling soldiers have marched on far enough. "Now, you're not just here to sample the merchandise, are you?"

"No, not at all." He answered. "Has Donald sent the invitation to you yet?"

"Invitation to what?" She answered with a question of her own.

"That sonuva..." Jack nearly cursed. "Dad's supposed to be inviting you to the New Years party he's hosting. Told me to be there, and bring you along."

"Oh, come on Jack, you know I don't to parties." She told him now.

"Neither do I, Eva." He replied. "But I'm getting transferred to Field Operations next year. Considering that I'll probably gone for months at a time with the war and all that, I think it's high time we spent some time together."

"Aww Jack, I didn't take you as a romantic." She teased.

"I'm not. It was Dad's idea."

Eva laughed and shook her head.

"So, will that be all Jack?" She asked as she turned her datapad off. She had finished whatever she was doing here, and was wrapping things up.

"Well, there is one thing... What's the minimum order quantity for the suits?"

 **-000-**

 _ **Thargora Thoraga, Tylkis Frontline Sector, December 20, 2192.**_

"The Turians are up to something." Okeer told his Asari colleague.

"You said that last week." She replied. "And the week before that. And the week previous that."

"Your point being?" Okeer questioned, obviously annoyed by his colleague.

"Maybe you're just paranoid." She suggested. " Nothing's happened, what of it? There's nothing the Turians have right now that our defenses can't handle."

"You know the Volcano rule: the longer it stays dormant, the greater the eruption." Okeer told her now.

"Whatever it is, we'll handle it. No need to get your quads tangled in a knot." She dismissed. The Asari officer left the observation platform they were on, leaving him alone with his thoughts.

Okeer was far from doubtful that the Turians were planning something _big._ He just couldn't figure out _what._ His intel told him a lot of transports are moving to and fro their forward lines. Okeer assumed that this would be for another offensive, but some things just didn't add up. First of all, while the now regularly occurring trench raid by Hierarchy forces are generally assumed to be attacks designed to probe out their weak points, the attacks seem to be calculated in the other way around. The attacks aren't going after the weakest links in their lines, but seem to be going after the tougher sections, as if they were trying to keep them preoccupied. The second link that doesn't seem to add up is that a lot of troops are observed to be transported _away_ from the forward trenches. They were being transported at night when the Council forces had their observation sensors under cyber assault. It was quite clear to Okeer that the two are not mere coincidences, but are instead organized to be executed simultaneously.

All the arrows seem to point out that the Turians aren't preparing for an offensive, but are instead relocating.

 _"But why?"_ Okeer asks himself as he struggled to answer said question.

If the Turians are trying to keep the bulk of their forces occupied, what were they trying to hide? Was it the troop movements? Night time aerial recon could easily see their trenches slowly being emptied out. So it wasn't to hide the fact that they were moving, then they must be hiding _where_ they were moving.

Yes, that made sense to him.

Where were the Turians going? These movements wouldn't happen for no reason. They _must_ be planning something that they are willing to relocate so much of their forces away.

Okeer spent the next few minutes thinking and strategizing possible plans and responses. As he thought, he reviews the intel he had on some of the other frontline sectors. Both Council and Hierarchy forces are hemorrhaging badly in the city of Falaena. Fighting there had only taken a turn for the worst since the last few months. Fighting had turned into a seemingly eternal slog for every single block and corner. Relocating troops and leaving a basic defense force in Tykis and a few other sectors would allow the Hierarchy to scrounge up enough men to at least outnumber the defenders on Falaena by 4 to 1. In that city, numerical superiority and the ability to replenish losses are what will decide victory. The extra forces from Tykis and other sectors would arrive in the city relatively rested and better prepared to fight the already exhausted and nearly exsanguinated Council forces.

This was the conclusion Okeer came to.

With a sense of urgency, Okeer left the observation deck and rushed towards the command bunker where he would spend the next few days communicating with other sectors and observing Turian troop movements. The intelligence and information he collected would seemingly point the way that Okeer and his staff are looking. Unbeknownst to him, his actions may cost the Council this whole campaign.

 **-000-**

 _ **Archive Update:**_

 **Cydonia Mechanics M142 Powered Infantry Exoskeleton:** A project originally started by for the Sol Union during the Brother's War, Project Wunderwaffe was a competition started by the Union government to design a game changer in space age warfare. While the project wouldn't be completed in time, the research and files that the various companies and corporations had still remained. When Project Wunderwaffe was revived by the Systems Alliance government, only 2 of the original 8 participants returned to continue their work. Cydonia Mechanics, a Marathon based manufacturing and defense corporation, and Lawson Bio-Engineering, a medical and biotech research company based in Canberra, went head to head with their radically different interpretations of the future _miracle weapon._

As fate would have it, CM would win the bid. In the eyes of the jurors, LBE's genetic technologies were simply too radical and untested to be used en masse. While both CM's Power Armor and LBE's Meta-Soldiers would have worked somewhat similar changes (enhance individual soldier's physical abilities, allow greater suitability, provide a modular platform for new additions) it was decided that Power Armor was a more dependable long term solution.

As such the XM1 Powered Infantry Exoskeleton was the Alliance's blazing new super-weapon. The armor would make its users 10 times more powerful, 3 times as fast, and 8 times more effective than the average soldier. The thick armor that covered the exoskeleton was able to shrug off the vast majority of small arms fire. The thick plating allowed it to withstand directed energy attacks far longer than the average armor set that an Alliance Marine had, and kinetic energy was absorbed thy materials inside the massive plates. The armor's helmet is not only connected to the suit's systems, but also to other Alliance combat units allowing it to become a mobile command unit if necessary.

With all these features and abilities, the M142 Powered Infantry Exoskeleton is considered a must have piece of hardware. The only thing keeping it from being standard issue, is the pricetag. For the ability to turn a soldier into a tank, one must be willing to pay the half price of a low end tank (or at least a third, once production enters full capacity). At 40 million credits individually, the M142 has the same price of the outdated Kaiser II class MBT. The problem here is that one might arguably receive more value-per-credit by purchasing a Kaiser II and modernizing it with the latest equipment. This piece of controversy has stuck with the M142 ever since it was originally unveiled during the Brother's War.

Nonetheless, the M142 served it's role during the Great Galactic War with distinction. While far from perfect, the armor did its intended duties with few failures.

 **-000-**

 _ **A/N:**_

 **Yesterday (or today, depending on your timezone) marks this story as two years old. Crazy how time flies. It seemed almost a lifetime ago that I was a highschool student with a craving to write. Thank you to everyone who has supported me thus far. I really couldn't have done any of this without the positivity you all have given me when I write.**

 **So, this chapter is Me trying to move the story along faster. I told myself that I would have the Humans meet the council next week, half a year ago. Really, this is a problem on my part. As such, I'm going to do a fair amount of timeskips following this chapter. I would promise to update regularly, but my pastor told me that promising things I'm unlikely to keep is just setting myself up for more failures.**

 **Anyways, review or PM me what you thought about the story thus far, suggest some improvements or something, idk.**

 **As always, thanks for reading, and enjoy the rest of your day.**


	31. Plans in Motion

_**SSV Illusion, En Route to Anhur, January 16, 2193.**_

Jack sat down on his designated seat in the dreadnought _Illusion'_ _s_ conference room. The _I_ _llusion_ was the ACI Foreign Operation's mobile HQ. Where Domestic Intelligence was based mostly in Arcturus Station with various field offices across the colonies, Foreign Operations moved wherever was necessary. Dealing with external threats means that the ACI-FO couldn't afford to centralize or entrench themselves like the ACI-DI.

Jack was there very early, a practice his father had passed down to him when he was a child. A few minutes passed by when the other Foreign Operations _big boys_ trickled in. One by one they arrived until they are complete.

At the head of the table was Director-General Jeong. He was the leader of Foreign Operations and answered directly to the Secretary of Defense. The elder man cleared his throat and started the meeting.

"Ladies, gentlemen, thank you for arriving on time. Let's welcome the newest member of our circle, _Col_ _onel_ Jack Harper." Jeong said. Everyone acknowledge this with various nods and salutes. "Colonel Harper here transferred from Domestic Intelligence, his last posting was on Shanxi, aboard the _Jerusalem._ The man's experienced, knows how things work, and if he doesn't he learns them fast." Jeong said.

Jack nodded and looked around the table, measuring up his fellow agents. After a few more seconds of silence, Jeong continued.

"Alright, let's get to business; how are the Free Batarians faring?"

An officer sitting to Jack's right answered.

"They're holding on, for now. Anhur and Ba'kar are no longer under siege, Camala has fallen to the Hegemony, Torfan is expected to be liberated by Republican troops by the end of this month."

Jeong nodded, then asked again.

"How are the Turians?"

"Not good." the officer sitting across to Jack answered. "They're taking heavy losses on Thargora Tho...raga." she slipped trying to pronounce the alien planet's name. "The modified medigel we licensed to them is helping to lower death rates, but that doesn't stop them from being knocked out of combat. By estimations, they should have mobilized another 68 million soldiers by June, but that won't be enough to bring their numbers to two-thirds of the Council's forces.

"Worrying. Speaking of which, what do we know of the Council situation?"

Now the officer to Jack's left answered.

"From what we've been told by the Turians and Free Batarians, They've got the potential to stampede through the opposition, but ain't using it. Seems like they're stuck in some kinda Bureaucratic nightmare. The Asaro bigwigs..."

"Asari." someone corrected.

"...Asaro, Asari what have you, them bigwigs that're heading the peace movement are picking up more support. Sounds mighty similar to what my great-great-great granpap's great grandpappy had to deal with back during 'Nam." he continued.

"That's good." Jeong said now. "How are our efforts on contacting the bigwigs?"

The same officer replied again.

"Ain't much progress since last week, that's for sure. With the limited access we have to the council Extranet, it ain't exactly easy to be as active as we want to." He said. "Plus, we're using a Turian proxy program to talk to 'em. With the council's anti-espionage systems about, it's mighty tough to just keep chattin' to 'em for more than 10 minutes, let alone talk to 'em proper. Not sure if they're buying that we're Turian folks on the other side of the war interested in peace, So you'll have to take most of their responses with a grain of salt."

"Hmm, proceed at the current pace; we're in no rush to deal with them as of yet." Jeong told him.

The officer nodded and typed something into the datapad that was with him.

"How is that decapitation strike plan going?" Jeong now asked, going over the plans Jack had submitted earlier in the week.

"Still working out the finer details with our contacts in Kar'shan. The Chairmen meet together every quarter in their fortress capital. That's when we'll strike, but it's not easy. Security is tightest when all the Chairmen are present, so we have to figure out how to embed our agents in time for the meeting." Jack explained.

Jeong and the rest of the other officers nodded in acknowledgement.

"Alright then, keep on it. We'll reconvene again same time next week. Meeting adjourned."

 **-000-**

 _ **Tykis Frontline Sector,**_ _**Thargora Thoraga, January 22, 219**_ _ **3**_

It was almost dawn. The sun would rise from the southeast any minute now. The glares would blind anyone who would dare look directly on it. With the addition of the early morning fog, visibility was reduced to a mere few meters ahead.

This was the perfect cover to sneak across No Man's Land.

Kuril and his men laid prone on the ground as a Council sentry scoped past their position. As the sentry turned away, he beckoned for his soldiers to move. The Turians crawled further until they were barely a stone's throw away. The Council forces rotated their sentries at sunrise; a fact understood by both sides.

With the blinding sun rising behind them, Kuril motioned for his pioneers to prepare the package: an artillery shell modified to be a throwable bomb.

The Turian officer counted down from 5 and when he finished, the pioneers threw the jury rigged bombs onto the Council trenchline. The large explosion rocked the fortifications, surprising the tired sentries, and the still groggy soldiers that would take the new shift.

The council forces sounded the alarm as they scrambled and rushed to defensive positions. Half asleep soldiers got up and picked up their weapons as fast as they possibly could, hastily moving to counter the Turians.

Kuril and his soldiers rushed into the trenches and began indiscriminately firing upon Council soldiers. The greater the confusion caused by the attack, the better.

"More bodies into the trenches, lets go!" Kuril called out.

More of his soldiers dived into the trenches, firing away as they went. The Turians continued to push in, throwing their explosives around as though there was no tomorrow. The greater the chaos started, the greater their success after all.

Kuril, with a Carnifex pistol in hand, took point in the trenches. The particular squad he led was moving towards a bunker. They didn't make it far before getting bogged down in increasingly heavier resistance.

"Smoke grenades, now!" the officer ordered.

The soldiers following him complied, three of them took a smoke grenade each and lobbed it ahead of the group, obscuring the enemy's vision.

"Activate thermals and get ready to advance!" Kuril now told them. Each one flicked on the thermal scopes on their visors and confirmed it to the captain. Once all those following him had activated it, he motioned for them to advance.

Most of the council forces had barely any time to prepare, plenty of them weren't even wearing armor. Without their sight, the Allied Races had their combat effectiveness effectively neutered. The various Asari, Krogan, and Salarian defenders had to pull back as the Turians advanced with haste.

The Turians with Kuril pushed the defenders back into one of the major bunkers. The Council forces hunkered down and fortified the bunker that they expected to come under siege. The Turians expected this, and was not eager to get bogged down in a prolonged fight.

"Remus, take a few pioneers and throw some IEDs through the gun slits." Kuril ordered.

As ordered, Remus and a pair of Turian pioneers sneaked towards the bunker's gun slits, and when the guns stopped firing due to overheating, they threw their IEDs through it and ran like hell. Seconds later, a blast of smoke and fire blew out of the bunker's various holes and hatches. Just as they were going to breach the bunker, beeping noises interrupted him and his soldiers.

"Sir!" Remus said as him and his pioneers ran back to the group. "Time's up, we've go to move now!"

Kuril looked back towards No Man's Land and saw that the fog was starting to roll back. The captain nodded and ordered his men back.

"Everyone pull back, cover our withdrawal with smoke grenades!" He ordered.

Once again his soldiers lobbed smoke grenades out into the open. Enough smoke had come up and plugged the holes in the fog. This allowed for the Turians to pull out without the enemy blasting them with pinpoint accuracy.

"Pull out from cover to cover! The smoke doesn't stop bullets!" Kuril barked.

All around the sector's frontline, the attacking Turians withdrew from the enemy trenches as the smoke obscured their movements. Council gunners shot their machine guns at No Man's Land in frustration to no avail. It wouldn't be until a dozen or so minutes before the last gunner stopped firing.

From a bombed out bunker, a Battlemaster Okeer rose from the light debris covering him. His subordinates rushed to help him, but he waved them off.

"It's nothing serious." He told them. "Go take care of the others, I'll be fine."

The attack had left the Council forces in a state of minor disarray. While the plumes of smoke from bombed out structures burned around him, reinforcements started pouring in from the rear trenches. The Turians had timed their assault perfectly.

As Okeer sat down on a chunk of debris nursing the cuts and bruises he picked up, Jarrod approached him with a bottle of Ryncol.

"Are we too late?" The Urdnot Battlemaster asked.

"Unfortunately." Okeer grunted out as he took the bottle from his comrade.

He downed the alcoholic drink quickly then tossed the bottle aside.

"They're playing us like Pyjaks!" Okeer shouted out. "They're up to something, I'm telling you Jarrod."

"I've got no doubts about that. The problem is that we don't know what they're planning. Your report was dismissed for lack of evidence. You know that Okeer.

"We need to do something, dammit." Okeer growled out.

"Not until we figure out what they're up to first. It's a bridge we'll cross when we get there." Jarrod said.

"If there's any bridge when we get there at all..." The dusty Battlemaster sullenly said.

 **-000-**

 _ **JCF Dock No. 3, The Citadel, February 3 219**_ _ **3**_

Today was a great day for the JCF. Despite many Asari Republics withdrawing from the war effort, many others are standing strong with the rest of the Galaxy, or at least the Galaxy that was aligned with the Council.

"Today we launch not only a few new ships, but a new symbol of hope." Councilor Tevos said from the podium. She and the other Councilors were present to conclude the first _real_ joint venture between the Council races' navies.

"*wheeze* These three new ships, the first of their kind, will be a stepping stone not only to victory but also for further integration and cooperation between the various races." Councilor Bola said, continuing the speech.

It was now Councilor Toraph's turn to speak.

"The Dreadnought _JCF-D 1112 Aigaion,_ and the twin cruisers _JCF-C 1113 Kottos_ and _JCF-C 1114 Gyges_ are the pinnacle of naval warfare technology. The _Aigaion_ carries with it the most powerful suite of advanced weapons and the most devastating missile systems ever seen in naval warfare history so far. The Krogan built spinal weapon is the largest and most powerful of its kind, spanning a whole one and a three quarters of a kilometer and has the damage yield equivalent to the most powerful WMDs in the Krogan arsenal. The Salarian built 'warphead' anti-ship missiles are also a part of the _Aigaion's_ arsenal, capable of destroying dreadnoughts with a single strike and shattering flotillas in a single salvo."

Councilor Yorgal continued.

"Paired together with the most advanced electronic-warfare suites aboard the _Kottos_ and _Gyges,_ the newly formed Battlefleet Unity will be the most powerful and diverse collective of ships in the Galaxy. Rest assured that so long as the _Aigaion_ lives, victory will become an impossible goal for our enemies."

As the Councilors finished speaking of the new ships, a squadron of fighters ran a flyby over the docks. These fighters were the most advanced and latest model of air/spacecrafts. The lead aircraft sported dark purple wingtips.

Councilor Tevos now spoke again.

"Accompanying the _Aigaion_ will be Soul Squadron, a veteran Asari fighter squadron with history dating back all the way to the Rachni War. While Colonel Madella Mala, the legendary squadron's founder has died long ago, her successor, Matriarch Mihaia T'slagi will lead the squadron in the coming campaigns."

As Tevos finished her section, the squadron turned around and did another flyby. As they did this, the _Aigaion, Kottos,_ and _Gyges,_ uncoupled their docking locks and began moving away from the port to join the rest of Battlefleet Unity. The crowd cheered for the departing ships as the fighters lined up to land on the newly launched Dreadnought. The fighters lined up into the rear hangar door, where they entered and touched down in a perfectly organized and practiced form. As the fighters taxied to their respective slots in the hangars the commander of Battlefleet Unity, Matriarch Dilinaga the Younger, called the flight commander through the battle-network.

 _"So, Madame X finally joins us again in the frontlines."_ Dilinaga said, referencing Mihaia's previous tenure as the test pilot for various experimental fighters, and the template for the Salarian swarm drones. _"On one hand, the Turians are royally screwed if the JCF are putting you and Soul Squadron back in the field. On the other hand, we must be being royally screwed by the Turians to be calling you back in the field."_

"One Asari cannot win the war." She quietly answered.

 _"But one Asari_ can _make a difference."_ Dilinaga replied. _Matriarch Madella thought us that much."_

The Matriarch pilot only grunted in response.

 _"Hey, I get that you don't particularly care about anything except flying and leading Soul Squadron, but you have to remember why we're here."_

"I remember clearly, Dilinaga." She somberly replied. "I'll never forget her sacrifice."

 _"Well... that's enough moping and brooding for one day. Come join me and the others in the officer's quarters, and bring your squaddies with you. We're having a private celebration there."_

"Copy that." Mihaia answered, closing the channel.

 **-000-**

 _ **Archive Update:**_ **Final recorded conversation between Soul 1 (Madella Mala) and Soul 15 (Mihaia T'slagi) circa 1409 AD.**

 _ **Playback Start.**_

 **Soul 1:** *heavy breathing* [flight systems error] Dammit, dammit, dammit!

 **Soul 15:** Soul 1, are you alright?

 **S1:** [flight systems error] That hit did a number on my controls *heavy breathing* mag-servos are shot... hydraulics are failing...

 **S15:** Soul 1, we need to pull out now!

 **S1:** Negative, Soul 15. [Flight systems error] We can't... *heavy breathing* I can't...

 **S15:** What are you saying?

 **S1:** Some shrapnel punched through... *heavy breathing* hit me in the... [Pilot blacking out... Administering adrenaline shot] AH! Damn VI...

 **S15:** Soul 1, can you make it back to the fleet?

 **S1:** *heavy breathing* Doesn't even... doesn't even look like I'll make it off planet. [Flight system error]

 **S15:** Dammit, what do we do now?

 **S1:** Not we, Mihaia... *heavy breathing* Just myself. [Craft in trajectory to impact... Pull up... Pull up.]

 **S15:** Matriarch, what are you doing!?

 **S1:** *heavy breathing* Still enough munition... to take down the next... *heavy breathing* and the Queen... [Over G... Over G... Pull Up]

 **S15:** No! You can't do this!

 **S1:** Can't change course even if i wanted to... *heavy breathing* [Craft in trajectory to impact... Pull up... Pull up.]

 **Prolonged s** **ilence**

 **S1:** Mihaia... *heavy breathing* you're the only one left... [Craft in trajectory to impact... Pull up... Pull up.] My kingdom... the skies... watch over it... [Craft in trajectory to impact... Pull up... Pull u...] *feed is cut off*

 **S15:** Matriarch... No!

 **Dilinaga:** *electronic buzzing* ...oul squadron, we're not reading you on sensors... Can you hear me?

 **S15:**...

 **D:** Soul 15, is that you? Where is the rest of Soul Squadron?

 **S15:** This is Soul 15... I'm the only one left...

 **D:** I... I see... *sniffles* We're no longer detecting any activity from the nest... One of you must've destroyed it... Soul 15, return to the fleet. We've lost enough today.

 **S15:**...

 **D:** Soul 15, can you hear me?

 **S15:** Copy that.

 _ **Playback end.**_

 **-000-**

 _ **A/N:**_

 **An update! This calls for a celebration! Time for me to crack open that box of traditional Korean acorn snacks a girl I am totally not into gave me last week.**

 **So, the Turians are moving on with O** **peration Dark Blue, and the Council forces are scrambling to figure out what they're doing. Will they catch on before it's too late, or will the Turians succeed in pulling a sneaky on them? Guess we'll have to wait and find out. Also, now I'm introducing two new Asari kind-of antagonists. Dilinaga the Younger and Mihaia T'slagi. 10 points to whoever can figure out which niche game characters Mihaia is based on. I'm dropping references left and right, and adapting almost entire concepts, it almost feels like ripping off to be honest.**

 **Also, the Human/Council will be happening in the next two chapters, I promise.**

 **Side note to the guy who was asking what the Power Armor looked like, I'd imagine it as a cross between Space Marine power armor and the T-51b suit from Fallout. Like, imagine most of the torso and helmet like the T-51, and imagine the shoulder pauldrons and leg armor like the Space Marine armor. Ability wise, it's nowhere near Space Marine armor and more like the Fallout Power Armor.**

 **Also, I just realized that the three views from Indonesia are probably just myself.**

 **As always, thanks for reading. Review or PM me your thoughts, all feedback is appreciated.**

 **Again, thanks for reading, and enjoy the rest of your day.**


	32. Arrival

**_HNS Spirit of Duty, Argos Rho System, February 22, 2193_**

"Sir, I'm detecting activity from the relay." The Turian sensor operator reported.

Captain Sparatus, from the top of his CIC podium shot a quick glance at the operator to confirm. When the operator did not rescind the report, he took action.

"Comms, prepare the ship for battle and send a warning to the rest of the fleet." He ordered.

The forward guard group he commanded watched the relay leading to Council territory for any and all activity. Blackwatch and other kinds of covert operations groups always sent a heads up message before using the relay. This was unscheduled, which meant one thing: impending attack. The ships on the forward guard group gathered up in a diamond formation, with the heaviest ships on the rear of the diamond. The thirty something ships Sparatus had under his command was never intended to stop whole invasions or attacks, but instead to delay the attackers so that the rest of the fleet could rally and counter attack. Any and all information that he could send back to the main group was of the utmost importance, as it allowed for them to plan a proper retaliation. Unfortunately for Sparatus, this new threat was going to be the kind of beast nobody could have expected.

"Ships are exiting relay transit... there's 95 five of them." the sensor officer reported once more. He looked over the data received once more and amended his report. "Wait a minute, those aren't ships, they're just fighters!"

"What kind of idiot launches a fighter assault without heavy support?" Sparatus commented as he brought up the data feed on the holographic display in front of him.

"Detailed scans complete, only 15 of them are actually fighters.. 30 are drones and the rest are... missiles?" the sensor officer confusedly finished his report.

Missiles? How could they be operating independently like that? Without a predetermined target and firing solution, a missile is no different than a dumb torpedo. Drones acting outside the scope of a centralized control was also notoriously ineffective. Even with advanced programming derived from a legendary ace as the piloting VI is often not creative enough to exploit these maneuvers. Add to that, it's practically impossible to control both drones and missiles effectively through a Mass Relay. What was going on? Whatever's happening, Sparatus knows it's not good.

"Scramble all interceptors and power up the PROXY lasers to maximum charge... I've got a bad feeling about this." Sparatus ordered once more.

As the Turian interceptors launched from their respective ships, further data scans in the _Spirit of Duty_ concluded.

"Scans finished on the fighters, sir. They're an advanced model, no combat data is available as of yet. Naval Intelligence suggests that this the culmination of the AVF program the Council launched 20 years ago."

This somewhat surprised Sparatus. He thought that the AVF program was a massive failure and was just another drain on the Council's cracking economy. Most of the coverage from the Council media painted the AVF program in a bad light... unless all that was just a false flag operation. Pulling up an image of the lead fighter in his holo-projector, he went over the list of features that the AVF was supposed to have. The first thing he remembered were reports that the AVF was supposed to be able to become some sort of network hub for various weapon platforms. If that were the case, then he supposed that it wouldn't be too far off to assume that the fighters were the ones controlling both missiles and drones. These fighters would be a far greater danger than he had anticipated.

"Comms, notify the fleet that the drones and missiles are being controlled remotely, most likely by the fighters." He told them.

The comms officer didn't question this and simply nodded. Right after the officer had sent the message, he intercepted a message from the enemy fighters.

"Got something from the enemy fighters, patching it through now."

 _"Turians."_ the Asari voice said with hatred practically dripping through the channel. _"You are trespassing in my Kingdom... your punishment is death."_

The connection closed, and almost instantly the missiles surged forward and was on course straight towards the Turian forward group.

"Incoming! transfer all auxiliary power to shields, evasive maneuvers now!" Sparatus ordered.

The _Spirit of Duty_ turned sharply, and the missile targeting the ship narrowly missed by a few dozen meters. The Warphead missiles exploded behind the ship with an harsh, yet oddly magnificent, purple glow.

"What in spirit's name was that!?" Sparatus demanded, more than asked.

"It looks like a missile tipped with a mass effect warhead... energy signatures seem to say it's a supersized version of a biotic warp!" the sensor officer answered.

Sparatus cursed and slammed his fist on the command podium's railings in anger. He looked over the damage reports from the rest of the forward group. Most of them were heavily damaged, if not outright destroyed. They had been gutted by a few missiles and fighters. The shame and dishonor he felt was immense.

The Asari fighters now charged ahead. As the Turian interceptors entered firing range, both sides fired a volley of missiles. The Asari bunched together for a few seconds then scattered apart in a sunburst like pattern with their drones in tow.

The lead Asari fighter relayed orders to her squadron.

"Payload has been delivered, let's clean up the navy's mess." She said.

Sinister laughs was heard through the Asari comm channel.

The fifteen fighters, with two drones in tail each, targeted the remaining ships. The interceptors struggled to keep up with the faster and more agile fighters, unable to pull off the same maneuvers as the fighters.

Sparatus watched helplessly from the _Spirit of Duty_ as the interceptors one by one started disappearing from his holographic display. The communication feed from the interceptors didn't help much either.

 _"She's on my tail... I can't shake her!"_ He heard a pilot begging for help. _"It's the Purple Wings, she... she's like a machine!"_ The last interceptor pilot said before being shot out into the void.

Now, like a predator, the fighters came bearing down on the crippled ships. With their interceptor defense practically neutered and the ships barely functioning, all hope of holding off the fighters was practically lost. Bringing even worse news, his sensor officer reported that the mass relay was powering up once more. Reluctantly, Sparatus called for a tactical withdrawal.

"There's no chance we're fighting them back and there's no telling what will be coming out of that relay." He told his comm officer. "Order everyone to withdraw to the fleet rally point!"

All remaining functioning ships turned around and charged their mass effect cores for an FTL jump. As the _Spirit of Duty_ prepared for a jump, the Council fleet exited relay transit. A massive blip appeared in sensors, a huge ship, likely a Council Dreadnought. From one of the observation cameras outside his ship, he looked closely at the massive ship in the center of the Council Fleet. It was big... bigger than any other ship he had seen so far. He guessed that it must have been around two kilometers long, and likely more than that when counting it's width. Sparatus saw the design element of the three primary council races meshed together in that one gargantuan vessel. As the hulking ship dropped from relay transit, the forward group's remnants jumped into FTL, towards the rest of the Turian fleet.

The Turian captain brought up all the footage the cameras caught of the Dreadnought and observed. He saw that the fat body and massive 'wings' that primarily built up the ship's body was very Asari aesthetically. Along with it was the large, maw-like front, which he believed was primarily a mix of Asari and Krogan. Jagged fins dotted the tail end of the ship as well as the rear of the wings, a distinctly Salarian design. Sparatus saw what looked to be an indent on the top rear of the ship's body and as he observed, which seemed to connect to a bulge in the front of the ship. He supposed that this could have been a large aircraft hangar, though he couldn't be sure.

"Sir, Admiral Arterius is on the line." the comm officer notified the captain.

"Put him up." Sparatus answered.

 _"Captain, I've glanced through your preliminary reports but I want the details straight from you."_ Desolas said through the line.

"The new enemy fighters are assumed to have some very advanced computer systems. I believe they are the ones that are providing targeting data and control commands to the drones and missiles that transited the relay with them." Sparatus explained. "They're also far more maneuverable and carry more firepower than our interceptors. In short, we were outgunned, badly."

 _"And now the rest of their fleet are here... what do you reckon our chances of holding them off are?"_ The Admiral asked.

"Bluntly put, sir, less than slim." Sparatus answered.

Admiral Arterius wasn't in deep thought for long before deciding on a course of action.

 _"Deploy all our ground forces planetside._ _They'll be of no use to us in a fighting withdrawal."_ Desolas ordered. _"If that Dreadnought is what I think it is, then we're in no real position to fight back."_

Sparatus and his forward group had no ground troops with them, so they can ignore that command.

"Affirmative, sir. I'll tell my sailors about the withdrawal." Sparatus answered.

Desolas nodded, then turned off the call. He looked up and saw his bridge crew looking to him. Sparatus tried to provide what reassurance he could. He stood up straight, gripped the CIC podium's rails, and declared.

"Don't loose heart Turians, we _will_ return." He gritted out.

 **-000-**

 ** _Count Lazlow Air Base, Christmas, Elysium, March 1, 2193_**

The refugees had arrived.

A spectacle for the small town of Christmas, to be certain. Besides the operations being held in Count Lazlow Air Base, the citizens of the small rural town rarely saw anything of the outside world. Count Lazlow was chosen to host a group of the alien refugees exactly because it was isolated. With Christmas being the closest settlement and nothing else within almost a hundred miles, this was the perfect place to keep the aliens; both from the public, and from escaping.

Markov watched from the sidelines as the Aliens disembarked from their transports. He didn't particularly like Aliens, they have caused him enough grief to last a lifetime. However, in a vicious stroke of irony, he was tasked on handling this batch of refugees. He was still in his flight suit when he got the assignment a mere hour ago, and he was still in his flight suit now. The pilot accompanying him was in her dress uniform though. She, for whatever reason, received the assignment a whole six hours earlier than he did. She was completely prepared where as he wasn't.

"Cheer up, _brother._ " She said. "This is a once in a life time opportunity, so turn your frown upside down!"

Sergei shook his head. Being stuck in the same squadron with his older sister was enough of a boondoggle to him. Some bureaucratic error due to her having been married and having changed her surname had inadvertently gotten her into the same unit as him.

"Try and stay professional, _Lieutenant_ Natalya Yoslav. First impressions are important after all, no?" He replied, pulling rank.

"I was just trying to ease up your nerves, Captain Sergei _Markov_." She teased.

Markov merely sighed and massaged his temples.

"How'd we get assigned to this anyway? The 444th Squadron is a temporary unit until we get transferred to a real squadron." He now asked her.

"We're the only air unit around here that was available, I guess." she answered. "Wizard and Merlin Squadrons are all in action above the front lines, and how could you forget that Hurricane Squadron, your old unit, no longer exists as of January?"

"Don't remind me." He winced. "I should've known they had more than a couple MANPAD sites in that city."

"Hey, it wasn't your fault that Shanxi was a mess." she now turned to him. "Most of Hurricane got knocked out after you got shot down anyways, so there's no reason to blame yourself. In fact, if there's anyone you should be blaming it should be..."

Markov cut her off as the band of refugees that were supposedly going to join the Aviation Force, being herded by some guards, began to approach them.

"We'll save this for later." He told her. "For now, we deal with these Aliens."

The Aliens group finally reached the two of them. Markov observed them, realizing that they were a diverse bunch. One of them looked like his old pet salamander he had back in New Moscow. As he continued to observe them, his sister came forward and greeted them.

"Greetings, I'm Lieutenant Yoslav of the Systems Alliance Aviation Force, 88th Air Wing, 444th Tactical Fighter Squadron. I suppose you all will be staying with us?"

The aliens looked to each other, unsure of what to do. One of the guards herding them gave one of them a nudge.

"That's your cue to answer." The guard said.

The Alien that was nudged, one of those slick, amphibian looking aliens, sheepishly answered.

"Yes. When we boarded the ship that transited us from Batarian territory, they told us that we were to be sent to a military base, and that our assignments would follow soon."

The Alien spoke fast, and in a relatively high pitch. It reminded Markov of a bookworm back in his high school.

"Thank you... I'm sorry, but I don't know your name." Natalya asked.

"I'm Mareon Damar... I'm a male." the Alien said as an after thought.

"Indeed, Mr. Damar. Now, if you would please follow us, we will take you to your quarters." She said as she beckoned them to follow.

Markov and Natalya, as well as the guards, lead the group of Aliens to the barracks that they would be staying in. As they walked, Markov finally decided to ask questions of his own.

"So, Mr. Damar, tell me about your ah... people." He asked.

"About my race?" Damar asked for clarification.

"Yes." Markov answered with a nod.

"Well, where do I start?" Damar asked more to himself than to Markov. "I, and some of the others with me, am a Salarian. We evolved from an amphibian species close to ten million years ago. We lived in the planet Sur'kesh, a planet mostly covered by various types of marshes and swamps, before we colonized the stars and made contact with the Asari."

"And which one of you lot are these Asari?" Markov then asked.

"That would be us." One of the blue, female looking aliens answered.

"I see Miss..." Markov trailed off, not sure of her... well, presumably the alien was a her, name.

"Tala T'mai." She answered. "We Asari still aren't exactly certain how we evolved the way we did, all we know is that the first 'modern' Asari appeared around eighty two million years ago."

One of the guards let off a whistle of astonishment.

"Y'all ladies have been around for a long time." The armed guard said.

"Quite literally." She answered. "We can live up to a thousands years at best, maybe give or take a few hundred years."

"That sounds like a lot of time to waste." Natalya commented.

"It is. Most of my people's young spend a couple hundred years doing Goddess knows what out in space before finally slowing down and becoming responsible individuals. Granted, there are outliers, but still." Tala told her. After a while, she continued again. "Of course, due to the war with the Turians right now, many of them choose to join the military instead."

"They're not being conscripted?" A guard asked.

"No, conscription has been a concept alien to the Asari people until we met the Krogan. We are the oldest democracy in the known galaxy, and we tend not to enforce our will through military means. The largest conflict that ever occurred in our homeworld, Thessia, only encompassed half a dozen major nations, and didn't even engulf half of a continent."

"No world wars huh?" Markov commented.

"World wars? This one is confused." The oddest Alien of the bunch, a floating jellyfish, asked.

"Wars that practically included all countries on our homeworld. Never had one?" A guard said.

"This one would have believed that a war of such scale would be apocalyptic." the floating jellyfish responded.

"Oh, yeah, we did too for a while. Then we did it... thrice." Markov joked.

Apparently, the fact that this was a joke flew way over the Alien's heads -or at least whatever constituted a head for them- and were all terrified of the prospect of not one, but _three_ wars that encompassed the entirety of a planet bound civilization.

"Thrice?" Tala asked, somewhat shocked. "How did your species stop yourselves from total self destruction? The Krogans didn't hesitate from using WMDs en masse in their _first_ and _last_ world war."

"Whoa, you're telling me there're aliens out there living in space Australia?" A guard commented.

"I don't know what an Australia is." Damar said. "But I'm guessing that it is an inhospitable landscape filled with deadly, hostile, and mutated animals?"

All except one of the guards just snickered and chuckled at this.

"Wankers." the lone guard said.

The group finally reached the barrack that was assigned to them.

"Well folks, this is where you'll be living for the duration of your service." Natalya now told them. "You have today off. Get settled, get some good rest. Orientation starts tomorrow at 0600."

"Oh-Six-Hundred?" An Asari asked for clarification.

Natalya completely forgot that the Aliens probably had different ways of measuring, or at least mentioning time.

"Six o'clock in the morning... the clock in your quarters will tell you." She tried to explain.

"Any further questions?" Markov asked.

Whether it was because there genuinely was no more questions, or because they were unsure of what to ask, Markov didn't know. When they didn't ask him anything in the following five seconds, he dismissed all of them. Once all of the Aliens and the escorting guards had entered the barrack, Markov sighed and rubbed his temples.

"Christ, we're in for a real mess." He said to her.

"These are interesting times, Sergei. You should be grateful." She replied in jest.

"In some places, that's considered a curse." Sergei returned.

 **-000-**

 **Colonial News Center:** The first batch of Alien refugees, as per President Harper's controversial program, has arrived this week, starting in the edge colonies. Mr. Hugo Von Brandenburg, spokesperson of the newly formed Foreign Affairs Department has said that the Alien's mandated work shouldn't be too disruptive on general activities, and that the average Alliance citizen doesn't shouldn't need to expect seeing Aliens everyday. He states that the refugees are not coming in large enough numbers, and that they'd be limited to certain areas anyways. He did mention that those who work in government facilities in the outer colonies are more likely to meet them, but are not guaranteed to do so. This statement seems to have placated many of the somewhat uncomfortable members of the Nationalist Party, and to a lesser extent, the xenophobic Terra Firma party. Hopefully, our corespondents will be able to obtain an interview with these refugees sometime in the future, though Mr. Von Brandenburg has stated that he'd rather let the Aliens acclimatize themselves first before doing anything as public as that.

 **Citadel Central Broadcasting:** Intense battles continue along the frontlines as our valiant Allied races push forward to defeat the Turian Hierarchy. With the deployment of Battlefleet Unity, the Turian Navy has faced defeat upon defeat in the field of battle. This is a major turning point in the war, and experts are predicting that we may be entering the final stages of this long and massive conflict.

 **Free Batarian Network:** The vile Hegemony forces have taken control of Torfan and moving forward with their attempt to re-subjugate the Batarian people and it's allies back into slavery. This is just more reason for us to fight harder, to ensure that those who come after us can live a free life, without slavery.

 **-000-**

 **A/N:** **Hey guys, I'm finally back. Got caught up in a couple projects, some academic, some completely personal. That and my friend got me dragged into For Honor for the past few weeks. It's fun but frustrating at times.**

 **So next chapter, the Humans finally enter the Galactic stage officially. Ambassador Goyle certainly wont be making things easy for the Council, and there's no doubt that the Council won't take the Humans holding refugees lying down either.**

 **Also, quick note for those of y'all that might be confused with my username change. I'm changing it to better match up with my other social media accounts. I like to keep a certain sense of synchronicity among my accounts and I've already long since moved past my Dovahcheese username.**

 **The next update might slow down a tick due to the upcoming exam season in my uni. Hopefully I can update before then, but I make no promises.**

 **Also, for anyone interested, I have an Ace Combat and Skyrim story in the works. Expect one of them to release in a few days after this chapter. They should be a short series, maybe only 4 or 5 chapters long, so it's not going to eat up a lot of time from this one. As I mentioned a couple chapters earlier, I'm kind of getting burned out writing Sci-Fi all the time and need a little variation in what I write to keep the creative juices flowing.**

 **As always, thanks for reading. Leave a review of your thoughts or PM them to me. All feedback is precious to me.**

 **Again, thanks for reading, and enjoy the rest of your day.**


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